The Royal Canadian Mint has metaphorically plumbed the depths of the oceans to develop themes for new bullion coins.

A new Canadian 2020 2-ounce .9999 fine silver $10 coin depicts the mystical sea monster called the Kraken. The coin is the first in the new Creatures of the North series. 

Two coins will be issued annually for an unspecified number of years. 

“For as long as ships have sailed the seas, monsters have risen from the depths to strike terror in people’s hearts,” the RCM said. “One of the most frightening is the Kraken, a massive sea monster with tentacles so large, it can easily destroy an entire vessel, and drag it beneath the waves.”

From the Nordic countries to Greenland, South Africa and New Zealand, the Kraken appears on sea charts and in European lore as early as 1555. In the 1700s, European settlers in Newfoundland and Labrador began reporting Kraken sightings. An early photograph confirmed the existence of strange tentacled creatures off Newfoundland and Labrador, and their super-sized potential was verified when a 17-meter-long monster washed up in Glovers Harbour, Thimble Tickle Bay in 1878. Today, that creature is known as the giant squid, and it remains elusive.

The coin employs two overt security features, radial lines and a micro-engraved lasered maple leaf in the field. In the center of this mark, visible under magnification, is the numeral 20, denoting the coin’s year of issue.

Gerald Gloade designed the reverse of the coin, which features the Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

No mintage limit is stated.

A tube contains 14 coins (for 28 ounces), and a “monster box” contains 20 tubes, for 280 coins (totaling 560 ounces).

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