Robert Graves may have had it that "there's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either", but those running the world's mints might choose to differ, with Alice Munro the latest author – behind Jane Austen and Astrid Lindgren – to be honoured with an immortalisation in currency.

A silver collector's coin from the Royal Canadian Mint was unveiled yesterday, intended to celebrate the world's newest Nobel literature laureate Munro's "tremendous body of work" and to be a "beautiful and meaningful keepsake for readers, writers and collectors alike", according to the Mint's president, Ian Bennett. It will feature an "ethereal female figure emerging from a pen as a representation of one of the many central characters from Alice Munro's beloved short stories", said the Mint, as well as an image of an open book, inscribed with a passage from Munro's The View from Castle Rock.

The lines, "And in one of these houses – I can't remember whose – a magic doorstop, a big mother-of-pearl seashell that I recognized as a messenger from near and far, because I could hold it to my ear – when nobody was there to stop me – and discover the tremendous pounding of my own blood, and of the sea," are written upon the coin, which will retail for C$69.95 (£37.8), with 7,500 being made.

Munro's immortalisation on Canada's currency follows the decision last year by the Bank of England to feature a portrait – described by some as airbrushed – of Jane Austen on forthcoming £10 notes. The design will also include a line from Pride and Prejudice, "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!", and an illustration of the novel's character Elizabeth Bennet undertaking "The examination of all the letters which Jane had written to her".

In Sweden, meanwhile, Pippi Longstocking's beloved creator Astrid Lindgren is set to appear on the 20 kronor note, alongside an image of the red-headed children's character and a line from one of the stories about her. The new Swedish bank notes will appear from October 2015, according to the Riksbank.