Celebrate the hard-working American farmer with this tribute to agriculture, and get a 2nd coin FREE!

For a limited time, purchase this 2008 Agriculture Trade $20 Pure Silver Proof and receive the 1999 Agriculture Trade Commemorative Quarter for FREE!

For as long as humans have walked the earth, they have drawn their sustenance from the land. The agriculture trade can trace its earliest beginnings to the first crude attempts of early hunters and gatherers to grow wild plants from seeds that they saved over the winter. As agriculture continued to developed, the need for more space to plant these reliable food sources continued to lure people to new lands.

The Backbone of Our Nation
When the first immigrants arrived in North America over four hundred years ago, they faced the challenge of adapting European farming methods to this vast, unknown land. As settlements spread from east to west, the changing climate and geography produced markedly different agricultural practices across the continent. Still, regardless of crop or locale, every farm had the same basic need - power.

Horses emerged as the critical source of power, so the services required to breed, equip and maintain them became an essential part of the farm communities that dotted the landscape. Horses remained a key necessity well into the 1920s. Without them, farms would have been unable to produce the volume needed to feed the masses and generate income. In just a few generations, the first seeds sown by the pioneers had yielded of one of North America's defining industries.

The old aphorism, "although he works from dawn to dusk, a farmer's work is never done" has proven true into the 21st century. It's hard to think of a trade that demands more consistent, tedious labor than agriculture, which provides all of the thousands of food items we find at our local grocery on a daily basis. It's for good reasons that the Great Plains and the Prairie are known as the "breadbasket of the world". We owe this bounty (and a large part of our world-leading standard of living) to the selfless, hard-working North American farmer.

In addition to this silver proof, Canada has also issued both a commemorative quarter and a gold proof that pay homage to the hardworking farmers of America.

Click here for all the coins in the Tribute to Farming and Agriculture series!

For a limited time, purchase this 2008 Agriculture Trade $20 Pure Silver Proof and receive the 1999 Agriculture Trade Commemorative Quarter for FREE! (Quarter will not appear on your web order, but will automatically be added to your order prior to shipment.)

Investment Note
The Agriculture Trade $20 Pure Silver Proof has a mintage limit of only 10,000, which is the lowest mintage ever for a Canadian $20 silver proof. This is also the same mintage limit as the 2002 Queen Mother Silver Dollar, which now trades for over $400 in the aftermarket. We believe that this will be a very scarce issue once it is sold out at the mint.

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Technology Note
The Royal Canadian Mint refines the purest silver in the world. The RCM is also the only mint in the world to issue commemorative coins in a .9999 fineness. This one ounce silver coin is 99.99% pure!

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Obverse
A finely engraved and dynamic depiction of a farmer using a two horse team to plow his fields. The date and denomination are also indicated.

Reverse
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England, in profile facing right. This portrait, the fourth effigy of the queen to appear on Canadian coinage, was executed by the artist Susanna Blunt. The legend ELIZABETH II D. G. REGINA ("Elizabeth II, Queen by the Grace of God") and mint mark also appear.

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Packaging
The coin is encapsulated inside a burgundy leatherette, clamshell-style presentation case, lined with black velvet and protected by a black outer box. An individually-numbered certificate of authenticity is included.

Specifications