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Events Leading Up To The Coin Launch January 2, 1999 (Saturday) I logged onto the Royal Canadian Mint's web site to see how the millennium coins were going to be promoted. The main home page had a very nice large graphic image of the January quarter. The second page announced the winner of the January quarter and gave a brief explanation of the four images that were depicted on this coin. Within the news release section of the web site, I found an article announcing the unveiling of the January coin in St. John's Newfoundland as part of the Canada's New Year's Eve celebrations. In addition, the news release indicated that the Royal Mint would be unveiling the remaining 11 coin designs on January 5, 1999. This particular piece of news made me very excited. However, after reading the article several times, I was still not sure how much detailed information would be provided to the press on that day. Would the Royal Mint be showing the reporters the actual coin designs? Would they be letting the reporters know who were the artists and where they lived? January 4, 1999 (Monday) When I arrived at work Monday morning, I got a hurried phone call from Louise DeJourdan notifying me that I might be getting numerous phone calls from the press the next day. She said that the president of the Royal Mint would be holding a press conference on Tuesday morning in Ottawa to announce the designs and the winners for the other eleven quarters. I asked her if I could start letting my friends know about my winning the contest on that date and she said, "I could tell everyone in the world if I wanted to." This was very exciting information because each day I was finding it more and more difficult not to tell people about my winning the millennium coin contest. After Louise hung up, I immediately arranged a staff meeting for Tuesday morning at 9:00 am. I told my colleagues that I would be letting them know what my "big secret" was at that time. The fun continued … another 24 hours of office speculation and suspense. January 5, 1999 (Tuesday) When I got to work I logged onto the Royal Canadian Mint's web site and printed off a copy of the January 5 press release. The news release not only provided a graphic image for each of the 12 winning designs but it also told who the designers were and where the launch for each coin would taken place. It was not only exhilarating to view my design on the web site but also a great thrill to finally see the other winning designs. Although all designs were extremely well done, each depicting a special event in Canadian history, the two designs that I particularly liked, besides my own, were the April and September coins. Finally it was time to start "telling the world". I quickly composed a short e-mail message and sent it off to about 60 friends and colleagues telling them that I had won the February millennium coin contest. I also included within this e-mail my first journal entry called "The Phone Call". Later I discovered that this e-mail message was often forwarded to other people. As a result, the "word" quickly spread. Thus began a wonderful two months of my millennium coin promotion and stardom. I had just finished sending my last e-mail when I got a phone call from
John Chalmers, a long time friend and colleague who lives in Edmonton. John
usually gets up early and, with his first cup of coffee in hand, he will
sit in front of his computer to check e-mail. John had just read my e-mail
and he was calling to congratulate me on winning the contest. Since November
5, 1998, John had known that I had some exciting news to share with him
and he had been patiently waiting for my announcement. Everyone on staff arrived ten minutes before the start of the 9:00 meeting. They were obviously very eager to either find out what my "big secret" was or they heard that I had brought donuts. I was never quite sure (laughing out loud). The meeting was fun. I read my three journal entries: The Phone Call, The Trip and The Commercial. These journal entries gave a good overview of the events leading up to this particular moment in time. I also showed them the photos of the petroglyphs from Writing-On-Stone. Everyone was very happy for me, expressed their congratulations and told me that they had no idea that winning the millennium coin contest was my "big secret". They all thought it had something to do with my job as an administrator for the school board but could not figure out what it might be. Many thought that I might be changing jobs within the school board. Immediately after the staff meeting, my phone started ringing. The first call was from CBC radio. They did a short interview and asked me if I would be willing to appear live on the noon hour across Alberta radio show the next day. I said I would be more than happy to. The interviewer said that Alzira Botelhom, from Edmonton, who designed the August quarter would also be on the show. My next phone call was a reporter from the Calgary Herald newspaper. She did an over the phone interview which lasted for about a half-hour. The reporter also said that they would be sending a photographer over to my studio at 3:30 to take photos of me with my design. In all the excitement, I had forgotten that January 5 was Jan's birthday. When I woke up I had remembered this important event but as the days events quickly unfolded I had forgotten. Originally I had planned to go shopping over my lunch hour and get her a gift. It was now 1:30 and I was quickly running out of time. Then a goofy idea popped into my head. Because this was a turning into a Royal Mint day, I decided that I would print up some $50.00 bills with my face on them and put them into an envelope with a real $50.00 bill. This counterfeiting job took about an hour. As a result, I was able to acquire a quick cheap gift without leaving my office. However, the counterfeiting job turned out to be too good because when Jan opened the envelope later that evening she thought all the money was real. I had to quickly tell her what I had done and even then she took a second look at each bill. I collected all the fake bills and put them into my ongoing millennium coin scrapbook. I didn't want any of these bills to get accidentally put into circulation. I could just see the headlines on the front page of the Calgary Herald: "Millennium Coin Designer Arrested For Counterfeiting Money." Another problem that I was running into with Jan's birthday was the fact that I had promised her that I would purchase a birthday cake for her from Glenmorgan Bakery on the way home. It was now 3:00 and I only had a half-hour to purchase a cake and get home in time to meet the Calgary Herald photographer. The photographer arrived on time and, luckily, so did I carrying a birthday cake. Using a digital camera, she took a number of creative photos of me with my millennium coin drawing. She then connected the camera to her laptop and transferred the photos onto the computer. After previewing and selecting four of the best photos, she connected her computer to my phone line and instantly sent them by modem directly to the Herald press room. As she was doing this, I kept reflecting upon how far we have come in the last thousand years in terms of communications. The petroglyph images that will appear on the February millennium quarter were created as a lone act in an isolated landscape to communicate with the spirit world. Since their creation only a small number of Canadians have actually seen these petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park. However, with the click of a mouse button, these images can now be sent instantaneously to anywhere in the world for thousands of people to enjoy and see. As soon as the photographer left, Jan, Sarah, Aaron and myself jumped into the car and drove to our local Pizza Hut, where we met Blake for dinner at 5:00 p.m. Later that evening we returned home, opened presents and had birthday cake. Thus ended a very busy and extraordinary day. January 6 (Wednesday) On my way to work, I stopped by the local corner store to purchase a copy of the Calgary Herald. To my great surprise there I was in full colour on the front page along with the following headline: "Calgarian's cents-ational design featured on quarter". The article informed the readers about the Royal Canadian Mint's millennium coin contest, described the petroglyph designs that would be on the February quarter, talked about the historical significance of Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park and provided some basic information about me. After reading the article, I immediately purchased 5 more copies of the newspaper. As a colleague once told me, "you can never have too much good press". On the first Tuesday of every month the Supervisors within the Instructional Services Department hold a morning business meeting. At this particular meeting, I became the main agenda item. Almost everyone had read the article in the Calgary Herald and were anxious to find out more about my winning the millennium coin contest. As always I was prepared. I read my three journal articles, answered their numerous questions and passed around my Writing-On-Stone photo album. When I told them about the coin launch that was going to be held in Milk River on February 1, 1999 they thought it would be great idea if they could all attend. Vic Zelinski, Supervisor of Social Studies, suggested that this event and the millennium coin celebrations provided the school board with an excellent opportunity to develop a unit for the grade 4 social studies topic 4B. As part of this topic, students are required to study a native community, to learn about native life styles before European influence and to discover how fur traders and settlers brought about changes to their traditional life styles. The more we discussed the topic, the more excited everyone became. It was suggested that we rent a bus and all of us attend the coin launch and visit the park to explore further the teaching and learning possibilities of the unit. As a result, Vic and I started that day to organize a bus trip to coin launch. Media During the months of January and February 1999 I gave the following interviews:
January 6 - 31 - Events Leading Up To The Coin Launch January was a very busy month. Not only did I give a number of press interviews but I also put in a lot of time and energy in getting ready for the coin launch ceremony. One of the first thing that I decided to do was to make some kind of gift to give people with my signature on it. As a result, I created a 5" x 7 " coin card. The card background was a photo of the human figure and the horse petroglyphs. On the right hand side of the card, I wrote a few short paragraphs explaining the images on the coin. Two dye-cut circles were stamped into each card to hold two shining February quarters. I got the 2000 cards printed free of charge at Topline Quality Printing. I hand signed each card and gave each one their own unique serial number: 1/2000, 2/2000, 3/2000, etc. These gifts were very much appreciated by those people who received them. Sometimes I included the quarters with the card and other times I simply gave them a card and they then had to obtain their own February quarters to put into the dye-cut circles. Next I decided that I wanted to make a large three-dimensional February coin that could be used in publicity photos. This project was fun to do but took three very long days to complete. The final coin had a radius of 38". On the evening of Friday, January 29, 1999 I picked up my parents and sister, Kathy, at the airport. I arrived at the airport loaded down with gifts: 12 red roses for my mom, 12 pink roses for my sister, a sterling silver Commemorative Coin Set for my parents and a Millennium Souvenir Coin Set for my sister. In addition, I took my large three-dimensional coin and set it up on a tripod in front of the doors coming out of customs. While waiting for my parents, I had to answer a number of questions about the coin and I even had to give a few autographs. When my parents and sister came out of customs they immediately spotted my large coin. At first they thought it was part of the airport's decor until I explained to them that I had made it. During their stay, my parents were booked into a hotel near our house and my sister stayed with us. Lonnie's Coin Journal Introduction | The Phone Call | The Commercial | The Trip | The Events | The Coin Launch Other Documents Press Release | The Speech - given at the Coin Launch | Timeline [pdf] - given at the Coin Launch |
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