Millennium coin invaluable to local family

If Jane Johnstone of Fort Frances didn’t know any better, she’d swear the Royal Canadian Mint deliberately made the November, 1999 25-cent piece of the “Millennium Canada” collection in memory of her late son, Brad.
Designed by Brian R. Bacon, the coin salutes the bush plane which helped open Northern Canada.
But it also bears three striking coincidences associated with Brad Johnstone, who was killed more than two years ago when the de Havilland DHC-2 float plane he was piloting for Alaska Bush Carrier Inc. crashed in swampy terrain near Skwentna, Alaska.

Not only does the quarter’s month of issue match his birth month, the plane was the same make he flew–and the name Bradley is printed on it.
“It tells me that Brad’s spirit is still alive [and] that’s comforting to us. Things like this help [us heal],” Johnstone said last week.
Ironically, Johnstone had ordered eight sets of the coin collection as Christmas presents for family members because of the issue month and aircraft impression.
She had no idea “Bradley” was inscribed on the coin until her nephew called from Winnipeg.
“My nephew’s fiancée works at the Canadian Mint [and] she had enlarged the coin image to see if there were any flaws in it,” Johnstone noted. “She saw Brad’s name on the coin and just about fell off her stool.
“My nephew called and said to me, ‘Did you see the November coin with the airplane on it?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘No, did you really see what is written on the airplane?’” she recalled.
“I said, ‘I can’t believe it,’” she added. “Of all the 12 months, why would the [de Havilland] Beaver end up on the November coin?”
Johnstone said family members ordered the single November coin as a gift for her but added it had yet to arrive due to the overwhelming public response to the collection.
An investigation by the U.S. National Transportation and Safety Board into the 1997 crash, which also killed three of the four passengers on board, determined it was caused by a failed no. 1 exhaust pushrod and was not the fault of the pilot.