Canada Provincial Flower and Coats of Arms.
Enlargement About 1965 the Shell oil company produced a set of medallions commemorating the Provincial flowers, and Provincial arms of the Canadian provinces, territories, and one for Canada as a whole. These have the flowers on one side, and the provincial arms on the other. They were given away as promotions with gasoline purchases (one per purchase) until about 1968, giving people reasonable time to collect the entire set. 
Enlargement Special holders were made available for storing them, composed of a velvet covered card into which the medals were pressed and which was sandwiched between two pieces of clear plexiglass, then set into a a wooden base with a gold colored metal top. My image was taken of the main part of the case, without the base and top. The medals are each 31.6 mm in diameter, weight about 12.1 grams (they vary slightly), and are struck in a grey base metal with a thin gold colored coating. On many examples seen today the coating has oxidized off and only the grey base metal remains. Each medallion has on one side the coat of arms of one of the Provinces with then name of that Province in English at the top, and in French below, and the date that province joined Canada to the sides of the crest (except for the NWT and Yukon that are not provinces). On the other side is the Provincial flower with the name of the flower in English at the top, and in French below. What has caused a great deal of confusion over the years, is that the only date on these is the date the Province joined confederation, with nothing to indicate their true date of manufacture in or just after 1965. I get e-mails about these several times a week, which is why I am building this site about them (easier to send a link to the page, than write a long explanation each time. The set is composed to the following thirteen medallions : Every e-mail I get about these asks "what is my medallion worth". The answer is pretty simple in that they are so common that there is no significant interest in them, and no significant collector value. If you came into my store and wanted some, if I have them available (and I have a few hundred of them as I am writing this page), I would be happy to sell examples that have oxidized grey for 10 cents each, and examples that are still golden colored for 25 cents each. I do not sell them by mail, as they are heavy and the postage to mail them would cost more than they are worth. I am not interested in buying more of them. Even on these one occasionally see's mint errors. As I was working on this page, I discovered that the Prince Edward Island medal in the set I photographed has a New Brunswick purple violet on the back, in what would be called a mule error. I have just checked some other PEI medals, and they do have the correct Lady Slipper reverse. LINK TO OUR MAIN WEBSITE
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