About the $2 coin
This Special Wrap Roll Set ensures Canadian artist Jean Paul Riopelle and his masterpiece are well represented in your collection. Each set contains one Colourized Special Wrap Roll of the $2 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Jean Paul Riopelle circulation coin (25 coins per roll), and one Special Wrap Roll of engraved-only coins. It’s an easy way to get the classic (non-colour) Special Wrap Roll, which is only available as part of this set or with a subscription to the 2023 Special Wrap Roll Commemorative Collection.
One set gives you both versions of the Jean Paul Riopelle $2 coin.
Through works that reveal a lifelong love of nature, and mosaics that reflect his belief in unconstrained creative expression, illustrious artist Jean Paul Riopelle (1923-2002) used his art to push boundaries and command the attention of critics and art lovers worldwide. His monumental fresco, L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, is highlighted on the 2023 $2 commemorative circulation coin that is twice featured in each Commemorative Collector Keepsake Card, where they pay homage to this Montréal-born 20th century artist.
On 7 October, Canada will mark the centennial of legendary abstractionist Jean Paul Riopelle. Though he died at age 78, in 2002, Riopelle lives on through his art—including a global programme of centenary shows and other tributes—and, now, through a special two-dollar coin just issued by the Royal Canadian Mint.
An event Tuesday (3 October) marking the release of the new two-dollar coin—which Canadians lovingly call a “toonie”, as opposed to the one-dollar coin, called a “loonie” because it features an image of a loon—took place at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, which is also hosting the blockbuster show Riopelle: Crossroads in Time
(27 October 2023-7 April 2024), with some 130 works in all. In attendance were mint president and chief executive Marie Lemay, the Riopelle Foundation’s executive director Manon Gauthier and Jean-François Bélisle, who was recently named director and chief executive of the National Gallery.
“On the hundredth anniversary of Jean Paul Riopelle’s birth, we are delighted to issue a commemorative circulation coin honouring him as one of our greatest artists, whose talent and vision influenced a dynamic period in global artistic expression and touched admirers of his work and fellow artists in Canada and around the world,” Lemay says.
