2011 $200 22K Gold Coin SS Beaver

For hundreds of years, sailing ships ruled the seas. They were the driving instrument of global exploration, settlement and trade. By the early 18th century, however, a new technology emerged that would, roughly a century later, supplant the sail. It was the steam engine. With this new source of internal power, ships were no longer at the mercy of the shifting wind. As steam power improved, ships reduced the length of voyages by days, weeks, even months. 

This gold coin depicts the SS Beaver; a sail-and-steam hybrid and the object of much curiosity when it was launched in Blackwall near London in May, 1835. This stout, 31-metre (101 foot) vessel was commissioned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) as a supply ship.

The Beaver sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, around Cape Horn and up the coast to Fort Vancouver, one of HBC's fur-trading posts located on the Columbia River near present-day Portland (Oregon). After 225 days under sail, its four-metre (13 foot) steam-powered paddle wheels were installed to herald the start of a new era of steam for North America's Pacific Coast.

In 1862, the Beaver was charted by the Royal Navy as Her Majesty's hired survey ship and spent seven years charting the coast. It continued to serve the HBC until 1874 when it was sold to serve as a freighter and towboat. In 1888, the Beaver ran aground on some rocks in the first narrows of Vancouver Harbour. Today, only a few relics of the Beaver remain; small fragments of the first steamship to operate on Canada's northwest coast.

• Mintage: 2,800
• Composition: 91.67% gold, 8.33% silver 
• Weight: 16 g
• Diameter: 29 mm 
• Edge: serrated 
• Finish: proof

Includes:
• 2011 $200 22K Gold Coin SS Beaver