Montreal-area tattoo artist designs Royal Canadian Mint Remembrance Day coin

The $20 silver coin is called A Wreath of Remembrance: Lest We Forget. The design includes a wreath of six different-sized, coloured poppies with a maple leaf in the middle.

Caitlin Lindstrom-Milne never imagined she would become a tattoo artist. Seven years ago, the Dawson College graduate didn’t feel like there were any careers where she could properly apply her artistic skills — until a tattoo artist approached her.

“It was kind of like a light bulb went off and I was like, ‘Oh, this is actually a really good opportunity for me to share my passion with art,'” said Lindstrom-Milne.

Now the 27-year-old originally from Saint-Lazare is sharing that passion using another medium. She was chosen from a field of applicants to design the Royal Canadian Mint’s Remembrance Day coin this year.

“I was honoured to be asked to do such a special coin as it is such an important day,” she told Global News. “I did have a grandpa who fought in the war, and I think he would be proud of me. I wish he could have seen how far I’ve come and that he could see the coin in person.”

The $20 silver coin is called A Wreath of Remembrance: Lest We Forget. The design, which includes a wreath of six different-sized, coloured poppies with a maple leaf in the middle, took Lindstrom-Milne one week to draw.

The artist said she used the golden ratio to focus on the poppies in its 100th year as the Flower of Remembrance.

“So that’s where I was inspired to kind of make the wreath of the poppies kind of go from a bit small to large and … make your eye follow the circular shape of a coin,” she said.

It’s not her first time designing a commemorative coin. The Royal Canadian Mint first asked her to apply in 2019. Since then she’s designed three coins: the Remembrance Day coin, a grizzly bear coin and a black-footed ferret for endangered animals.