Gabriola Island resident Patrick Belanger holds his newly designed coin, 'The Duncan Incident', from the Royal Canadian Mints new Unexplained Phenomena collection. (Patrick Belanger/the mint.ca)

By Jordan Davidson

out of this word

Gabriola Island man beaming with his newly minted UFO-themed coin

Nov 6, 2023 | 5:32 AM

GABRIOLA ISLAND — One of Vancouver Island’s most well-known UFO stories is now immortalized in a new coin through a local graphic designer.

Patrick Belanger linked up with the Royal Canadian Mint recently, adding to an already extensive resume with the federal group which has included designing packaging for commemorative coins.

“One project led to another one, I got better and better at it, they loved what they were seeing, and one day one of the production managers at the mint asked me if I would be interested in actually designing a coin, and I said ‘yes, of course.’ Who wouldn’t be? And that’s how it started.”

While it’s not his first coin design, his latest Vancouver Island-focused coin was based on a UFO sighting between Nanaimo and Victoria.

Belanger’s coin design is inspired by a Duncan nurse’s story from an encounter in the 1970’s. (Royal Canadian Mint)

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Known as ‘The Duncan Incident’, it’s the coin part of the mint’s ‘Unexplained Phenomena’ collection.

“They provided me with the story of the Duncan Incident, which I didn’t know it existed, and doing a bit more research and receiving all kinds of reports from the mint, like the actual UFO reports and different things like that from the 70’s.”

The story is from New Year’s Day in 1970, where a nurse at a hospital in Duncan looked out a window and saw what she said was a brightly glowing, saucer-shaped craft outside her window, according to the Mint’s website.

Belanger said the part of the story which inspired his design idea was the moment the nurse opened the curtains and saw the UFO, as she was attempting to provide some cool, fresh air to her overheating patient.

“She went to open the window and she saw this big bright light, and at the time she didn’t know what it was, but then she started looking through the light, the big heavy glow, and then she saw what we typically call that oval shape with the glass dome, a bunch of control boards on the inside and a couple of people inside.”

Belanger’s new coin, which is rectangular and made from one ounce of pure silver, also glows under a black light, which comes with every coin.

“The idea behind that too was to have the glow to mimic what she would have seen. The way that I designed the coin, I made it from the perspective of the patient that was sitting on the bed.”

His first coin design was the Northern Fury features a Viking ship from 2018. (Royal Canadian Mint)

Belanger’s work has been featured around Vancouver Island before, including being included in the City’s street light banner competition in 2016 and 2017.

He also worked with tourism departments in Nanaimo, Victoria, and Tofino.

The new coins are now available on the Mint’s website under the new release section.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow