JEFF BENTLEY GRIFFON COIN

1979 GRIFFON TRICENTENNIAL COIN. This beautiful, heavy silver dollar – donated by Jeff Bentley – was created to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the first voyage by a commercial ship on the Great Lakes. There are all kinds of tales about the great ships, including Le Griffon, which has often been ascribed the honour of having been the first true ship to ply the waters of one of the Great Lakes, but that title depends greatly on how one defines the term “ship.” It is generally agreed, however, that the vessel was the first “named” ship to sail upon the Great Lakes. Much of the rest of her story is obscured beneath the mists of time and what little we do know comes from a period wherein the record of such matters as the building of large military and commercial ships were complicated by the politics and intrigues of the time and often of dubious credibility owing to the tendency to exaggeration and hucksterism which was somewhat the norm amongst Canada’s early explorers. There’s a great story about the shipwreck of Le Griffon, considered to be the Holy Grail of Great Lakes shipwrecks – you can read the whole story here: http://www.manitoulin.ca/2015/06/30/the-griffon-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-wreck-of-lasalles-great-lakes-ship/