Munro on the Money

England has Jane Austen. Sweden has Astrid Lindgren (the creator of Pippi Longstocking). Now Canada has joined those countries that put female authors on their currency by minting a silver collector’s coin honoring Nobel laureate Alice Munro. Canada plans to mint only 7,500 copies of the coin, which has a $5 (Canadian) face value but will sell to collectors for $69.95 (Canadian). One face of the coin shows a hand writing in a book, while an “ethereal female figure [emerges] from a pen as a representation of one of the many central characters from Alice Munro's beloved short stories,” according to a statement from the Canadian Mint. The words in the book are taken from Munro’s story collection The View From Castle Rock: "And in one of these houses–I can't remember whose–a magic doorstop, a big mother-of-pearl seashell that I recognized as a messenger from near and far, because I could hold it to my ear–when nobody was there to stop me–and discover the tremendous pounding of my own blood, and of the sea."