The Big Nickel: The Untold Story details Ted Szilva’s struggle to turn a five cent coin into $1 million
Earlier this summer, Sudbury celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Big Nickel, a nine-metre high replica of the 1951 Canadian five-cent coin that serves as the city’s most recognizable landmark.
The Big Nickel was conceived by Sudbury firefighter Ted Szilva in 1963 and initially proposed as a project to commemorate Canada’s centennial four years later.
However, when the city’s centennial committee chose to build a police station instead, Szilva decided to press ahead on his own.
A visionary and entrepreneur, Szilva took the idea of the Big Nickel and amplified it to encompass a tourist attraction with an underground mine, a numismatic park and a science museum.
He operated the Big Nickel Park from 1964 to 1981, and he sold it to the City of Sudbury for $525,000.
Szilva’s dream lives on as Science North and Dynamic Earth, two world-class tourist attractions that took the former Big Nickel Park to the next level.
“The Big Nickel is imprinted on the lives of all Sudburians,” said Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk at a book launch for The Big Nickel: The Untold Story of How Ted Szilva Turned a Five Cent Coin into $1 Million. “What really struck me about the story of the Big Nickel … is how it came into existence against great odds, how it survived against even greater odds and how it grew and prospered into a worldrenowned icon.
“Ted and his team struggled through bureaucratic indifference and the negativity that could so easily derail such an ambitious project,” continued Matichuk. “At any point, Ted would have been justified to question the wisdom of continuing and just give up, but he didn’t. Instead, he persevered, he improvised, he formed valuable partnerships and he always found a way to move the project forward.”
Perfect site
Szilva purchased a landlocked 17-acre property atop a hill overlooking Inco’s smelter complex in December 1963 figuring it was a perfect site for the Big Nickel. The owner quoted a price of $1,000, but agreed to a $25 down payment when Szilva said he didn’t have the money. He thought it was $1,000 an acre and was pleasantly surprised when he went to sign the papers the following day and discovered it was $1,000 for the whole property.
The following week, he had a visit from a salesman representing a medallion manufacturer in Toronto who had heard about his plans for the Big Nickel and proposed the striking of a medallion to help raise the necessary capital.
“I’ll pay for the die… and advance you the cost of the first 500 medallions,” the salesman told him. “I know these things are going to sell. You can pay me once you sell them. How does that sound?” The medallions proved to be a big moneymaker and sold through mail order to collectors around the world. Things were looking up, but Szilva had to deal with additional obstacles when the City turned down his application for a building permit and an access road to the site.
Inco solved that problem by giving him a 99-year lease on an adjacent four and a half acre property for $1 per year. Inco, Falconbridge and the city’s mining suppliers were big fans of the project.
Sudbury’s Noront Steel engineered, fabricated and installed the framework for the Big Nickel, MacIsaac Mining and Tunneling developed the underground mine, and Falconbridge donated the material and equipment for the construction of the shaft and headframe from an operation that was in the process of being shut down.
The Big Nickel still stands proudly against the Sudbury skyline next to Dynamic Earth, a geoscience centre that educates tourists as well as Sudburians about the city’s geological endowment.
The underground mine Szilva built has been expanded and takes visitors through a series of exhibits that demonstrate the industry’s evolution from hand-held jackleg drills to the sophisticated technologies used today.
Szilva’s book, co-written by his son, is available in Sudbury at Dynamic Earth, Science North and A&J Home Hardware. It can also be ordered online at www.thebignickelbook.com.
