February 12, 2013 – Mints and banks should not only regard artistic aspects when designing a new product but also the importance of the used symbols and the public reaction to be expected. Everybody knows the maple leaf as seen on Canada’s flag, it is the national emblem par excellence.
The new banknotes, though, introduced in November 2012 show a completely different kind of maple leaf, a fact that irritated the public. Botanists criticised that the national symbol is the sugar maple while the new banknotes feature the Norwegian maple imported once to Canada. Although it has nowadays naturalised to Canada it is still very different from the national emblem one might expect on the official currency.
Against the botanists’ statements a Bank of Canada’s spokesperson said to The Telegraph: ‘When we designed the maple leaf, we didn’t want to represent one species, we wanted a maple leaf that was not specific so that Canadians from all the different regions could identify it … It is a stylised representation of a maple leaf. … But it is not a Norwegian maple.’
Now probably also most Canadians may have noted that – whatever kind of maple it may be – the leaf on the banknotes is completely different from that on the national flag. Banks should take care of these details before issuing new money since they are also distributing national emblems into everybody’s pockets – for years and years.
You can read a BBC article …
… and one of The Telegraph.