Fifty Cents 2019 Ottawa Jail Hostel, Coin from Canada - detailed information

This coin was issued in Canada.

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2019 Canada $0.50 Lenticular Spooky Canada: HI Ottawa Jail Hostel

Coin is made of Cupro-nickel.
Comes packaged in a maroon clamshell beauty box from the mint along with a certificate of authenticity.
Obverse: Right-facing profile of Queen Elizabeth II, along with the year and face value.
Reverse: The two-image lenticular design by Emmanuel Julian Madail Monzon shows a ghostly encounter in one of Canada’s most haunted buildings. The first image shows a visitor entering a former jail during an evening tour of the HI Ottawa Jail Hostel, where the bar door is left ajar. When the coin is tilted, the door is closed and the eerie ghost of a former inmate—perhaps Patrick Whelan, who was hanged for the 1868 assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a Father of Confederation—appears behind the terrified visitor and looks directly at the viewer.

The two-image lenticular design brings you face-to-face with the ghost of HI Ottawa Jail, tilt it from side to side to see the haunting transformation. Add this Spooky Canada lenticular coin to your collection today!

Spending the night in an old jailhouse may be scary enough for some. But guests staying at the HI Ottawa Jail Hostel have also reported strange and mysterious happenings-from weeping voices to slamming doors, and a ghost that haunts a death-row cell at night. That restless spirit is believed to be the jail's most famous inmate, Patrick James Whelan. In 1868, the 28-year-old tailor was accused and convicted of the murder of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. On the morning of February 11, 1869, a crowd of more than 5,000 spectators gathered outside the Carleton County Gaol to witness one of Canada's last public executions. Whelan maintained his innocence to the end. His last wish was to be laid to rest in the family plot; instead, he was unceremoniously buried beneath the gallows. Whelan's descendants continue to hold out hope for an exoneration. In 2002, they added soil from the old jail's courtyard to the grave of his widow-incidentally, in the same Montréal cemetery that is McGee's final resting place.

In the early hours of April 7, 1868, Thomas D’Arcy McGee—a Father of Confederation—was shot and killed on Sparks Street in Ottawa. Patrick Whelan was hanged for the crime at the Carleton County Jail despite proclaiming his innocence to the end. The jail is now operated as the HI Ottawa Jail Hostel. Many guests have reported waking up in the night to see the image of a man, standing at the end of their bed, who fits the description of Patrick Whelan. His restless spirit still seems to be haunting the hallways of the old jail.In 1868, the 28-year-old tailor was accused and convicted of the murder of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. On the morning of February 11, 1869, a crowd of more than 5,000 spectators gathered outside the Carleton County Gaol to witness one of Canada's last public executions.