The Royal Canadian Mint’s collaboration with the glassmakers of Murano has a second chapter. The Mint has released the 2026 Murano Silvery Blue Butterfly, a half kilo fine silver coin crowned by a 3D butterfly handcrafted in Murano glass by master glassmaker Vio Col Vetro in Murano, Italy. Priced at $4,139.95 CAD and capped at a worldwide mintage of just 800 pieces, it follows the 2025 Murano Monarch Butterfly, the coin that introduced the format and, by all indications, earned it a sequel.
For collectors, the appeal is the same one that made the Monarch memorable: no two coins in the series are truly identical. Each glass butterfly is shaped by hand in a workshop tradition that predates coinage presses by centuries, which means every one of the 800 collectors receives a piece that exists nowhere else.
The Coin: Half a Kilo of Fine Silver with Selective Gold Plating
The canvas is substantial: the Murano Silvery Blue Butterfly half kilo silver coin weighs 502.5 grams of 99.99% pure silver, measures 85.52 mm across, and is struck in proof finish with a serrated edge and a $125 face value. The reverse is based on an original watercolour painting by Canadian artist Marie-Élaine Cusson, whose design places two engraved silvery blue butterflies, each angled to show a different view of the wings, among an arrangement of French marigolds and zinnias, two annuals prized for drawing pollinators to Canadian gardens. The third butterfly is the Murano glass centrepiece itself, perched in three dimensions above the engraved field.
Selective gold plating ties the composition together. The rim, the two engraved butterflies on the reverse, and the obverse effigy of His Majesty King Charles III by Steven Rosati are all plated in gold, set against the bright silver field. It is a deliberate contrast, and on a coin this size it has room to work.
Cusson has described wanting the collector to almost feel the breeze moving through the scene, an artwork built first in watercolour, with the fine detail of wings and petals added in coloured pencil over top. Translating that layered painting onto half a kilogram of silver fell to 3D artist engraver Louis-Remi Labelle, who notes that the larger surface changed his whole approach, allowing far more engraved detail than a standard issue, while planning the composition so the engraving and the glass embellishment complement rather than compete with each other.
Genuine Murano Glass, Handcrafted by Vio Col Vetro
Murano has been the home of Venetian glassmaking since 1291, and its reputation rests on a detail many collectors may not realize: there is no paint involved. The vivid colours of Murano glass come from mixing colourless glass with minerals and oxides, zinc for white among them. The silvery blue butterfly on this coin, blue above with a silver spotted underside, is built from that same chemistry, shaped by hand by Vio Col Vetro.
The Mint underlines the point with paperwork. Alongside the standard serialized certificate of authenticity comes a second certificate from Vio Col Vetro, attesting that the butterfly is genuine Murano glass, handcrafted in Italy. Two certificates for one coin is unusual, but then so is the coin.
There is a small natural history footnote worth knowing, too. Unlike the monarch, which famously depends on milkweed, the silvery blue butterfly has no single host plant. Its larvae feed on members of the legume family, alfalfa and cow vetch among them, while the adults take nectar wherever the flowers are. A fitting subject, perhaps, for a coin that ranges across two crafts and two continents.
Packaging: Dome Capsule, Wood Case and Watercolour Art Card
The packaging leans into the botanical theme. The coin sits in a newly designed taller dome capsule shaped like a glass cloche with base, a nod to the way treasured specimens have been displayed for centuries. The cloche rests in a Royal Canadian Mint branded wood case with a black beauty box, and the set includes a 5″ x 7″ art card reproducing Cusson’s original watercolour on cream art paper, ready for framing.
What the Low Mintage Means for Collectors
The Murano Monarch established the concept; the Murano Silvery Blue Butterfly confirms it as a series. With a mintage of only 800 coins available worldwide and the 2025 predecessor already behind it, this release will likely be judged less as a standalone novelty and more as the second entry in what collectors may come to treat as an annual pursuit. The question now is not whether the Mint will make a third Murano butterfly, but which species lands next.
