Yesterday morning I caught wind of a sweet new collectible quarter being released by the Royal Canadian Mint at the end of this month. The CBC’s own On The Coast producer and sometimes-host, Matthew Lazin-Ryder tweeted “How cool is this: Royal Canadian Mint’s CBC coin” with THIS link. So I reached out to our new friends over at the Mint and they graciously sent over the details on it as well as this crispy clean image for you to have a look at. That is one nice looking coin.

It’s being released to honour the 75th anniversary of our public broadcaster and the microphone on it was “specially created by CBC/Radio-Canada for the Royal Tour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. Designed for outdoor broadcasts, its wind-resisting device was a major technological advance which is commonplace today. While a reminder of a by-gone era, this microphone is also a testament to Canada’s demonstrated ability to innovate and overcome challenges”.

And while Canada as a whole has demonstrated the ability to innovate over the years, so has the CBC itself. I asked Steve Pratt, who has been leading the charge with this innovation as the director of Digital Music and CBC Radio 3, what he thinks of this design. With great enthusiasm he responded…

“I LOVE this coin! The design makes me think back upon the rich history of innovation within CBC/Radio-Canada in the last 75 years, and it inspires me to keep pushing forward and doing my part to make CBC even more relevant to Canadians and our national culture in 2011 and beyond. That we are now celebrating 75 makes me fully realize how much passion there is for our public broadcaster, both inside the CBC and across Canada. Finally, even though I’m not sure if it’s intentional, I love the clever mix of old – the radio microphone – and new – the sound waves that actually look like the symbol for today’s RSS feeds or WiFi signals.”

The coin comes with a 35-page booklet looking back at 75 years of CBC/Radio-Canada’s landmark moments, innovations, and icons. You can order it HERE.