New Dollar Coin Honours Elsie MacGill

Report by John Chalmers,
CAHS Membership Secretary
posted August 2023
On August 1 at The Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary, the Royal Canadian Mint introduced its newest one-dollar coin. It honours Elsie MacGill (1905-1980), the first woman to earn a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, which she received from the University of Michigan in 1929. She had first graduated from the University of Toronto in 1927, where she was the first woman to receive a degree in electrical engineering. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology she continued her studies with post-graduate work in aeronautics.

Elsie was then hired as an engineer at Fairchild Aircraft Limited at Longueil, Quebec, in 1934 and in 1938 became Chief Aeronautical Engineer at the Canadian Car and Foundry Company (CCF) in Fort William (Thunder Bay). It was there in 1939 at the onset of the Second World War that she was put in charge of producing the British-designed Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for the war.
Portrait by Irma Coucill.
Crystal Sissons, biographer of Elsie MacGill, is shown speaking at the new coin’s launch, backed up by the Calgary museum’s Hurricane, built under the direction of MacGill. An oversize replica of the new coin is at her left, to be unveiled. (Photo courtesy of Royal Canadian Mint)
Recipient of many honours, Elsie MacGill was inducted posthumously as a Member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 1984. Elsie’s biography, Queen of the Hurricanes, was written by Crystal Sissons. See Crystal’s story about Elsie in The Canadian Encyclopedia when you click here.
Left to right above,  following the unveiling of our new coin, are Phyllis Clark, chair of the Mint’s board of directors; former Alberta Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell; Mint president and CEO Marie Lemay, who like Elsie MacGill is an engineering graduate; and Crystal Sissons, who served as M.C. at the event. (Photo courtesy of Royal Canadian Mint)
“The commemoration of Elsie MacGill on the new coin is significant recognition of MacGill’s importance to Canadian history,” says Crystal. “In its release, the coin has the potential to spark the question, ‘Who is Elsie MacGill?’ for those who have never heard her name. The answers to that question open doors to the history of Canadian aviation, engineering, technology, feminism, social policy and education.”

Appropriately, the museum’s restored Hurricane provided a backdrop for the event. CAHS Calgary chapter president, Richard de Boer, serves also as president of the Calgary Mosquito Society, which spearheaded fund raising to restore the Hurricane. In his remarks at the coin’s launch, Richard stated, “A total of 14,533 Hurricanes were built, of which Canada, under Elsie MacGill’s supervision, produced exactly 10% or 1,451 Hurricanes, part of a social revolution in that 40% of the workforce were women who built Hurricanes at Canadian Car and Foundry.”

The beautiful new dollar coin features an image of Elsie MacGill holding blueprints in her hand and shows her engineer’s ring on her fourth finger. Another detail is the lapel pin that represents her service as the Ontario and national president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. A Hurricane is depicted in wartime livery, and at the top of the coin is an image of a 1938 Maple Leaf II biplane designed by Elsie and built at CCF, the first aircraft created and built by a woman. The coin is also produced in a non-colourized version. The obverse side of the coin has the image of Queen Elizabeth II.
Burt Furlong, left, shoots a photo of fellow Calgary CAHS member, Richard de Boer, and the new coin unveiled at ceremonies on August 1. (Photo courtesy of Royal Canadian Mint).
Two million coloured coins and one million uncoloured coins are in circulation. Watch for them!

“We could not have been more pleased to host this very special event, celebrating the life and contribution of Elsie McGill,” says Brian Desjardins, executive director of The Hangar Flight Museum. “We are proud to have Hurricane #5389, truly a spectacular aircraft, on display in Calgary and it continues to attract the attention of thousands of visitors to our museum.”
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