The Royal Canadian Mint is releasing a limited-edition $20 coin to commemorate the unusual story of a Manitoba man's close encounter with a flying saucer.

The one-ounce silver coin being released Tuesday immortalizes Stefan Michalak's experience in Whiteshell Provincial Park, east of Winnipeg, more than 50 years ago.

Michalak said he suffered burns when he came across an unidentified flying object in what became known as the Falcon Lake incident in May 1967.

The coin carries the standard engraving of the Queen on one side and on the other displays a full-colour depiction of Michalak falling to the ground, with a forest and lake behind him, while a flying saucer hovers abovehim.

Like the story, the coin is unusual because it's oval-shaped and comes with a black light flashlight which the mint says gives the reverse side an otherworldly glow.

Erica Maga, the mint's product manager, said special dies needed to be cast to create the ovoid-shaped blanks for the coins, so more time was needed to produce these compared to the ones in people's pockets.

"We can only make a couple of hundred coins per shift. A lot of hands go into something like this," she said.

To read the complete article, see:
Canadian mint releases glowing oval coin depicting 1967 UFOencounter in Manitoba (http://calgaryherald.com/news/canada/canadian-coin-depicting-out-of-this-world-experience-released-by-mint/wcm/d7d7efbe-6634-47a3-a082-0a522fa4b80f)