Category: Canadian Coinage

Canada 1937 Dollar George VI

I was lucky enough to receive this coin as a Birthday present recently – and in a beautifully toned MS-63. The same “Voyageur” design by Emmanuel Hahn was used for the George VI silver dollar of 1937. There are two bundles of furs on the canoe and if look with a magnifying glass I can see that the forward bundle still has the initials “H.B.” standing for Hudson’s Bay (Company). I can’t see it on the image below mind. I’ll add a photo of mine later when the USB microscope thingummajig is set up. Checking the initials H.P. below the trunk in…

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Canada’s 1935 Silver Dollar

1935 Canada Dollar

Canada’s first silver dollar was issued in 1935 to commemorate King George V’s Silver Jubilee. Emanuel Hahn designed and engraved the iconic “Coureur Des Bois”  or “Voyageur” design.       Percy Metcalf designed and engraved the effigy of George V. The silver in the coin is currently worth C$ 10 but in MS-63 Uncirculated grading it has a 2015 value of C$ 110   Mintage 1 dollar 1935 : 428 707 Specifications Alloy: 80% silver, 20% copper Weight: 23.33 grams Diameter : 36.00 mm, thickness 2.84 mm Engraver: Obverse: Percy Metcalfe, Reverse: Emanuel Hahn Designer: Obverse: Percy Metcalfe, Reverse: Emanuel…

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“The King Of Canadian Coins”

“The tale begins in 1870, when the 50 cent coin was first introduced in Canada. 450,000 coins were struck that first year, but demand for this denomination varied widely afterwards, with some years having no coins produced at all.In 1920, the Canadian government officially reduced the silver content of our coins from 92.5% to only 80%. This worsened the situation for the 50 cent denomination, which was already unpopular, and demand for the coins fell dramatically. So much so that of the 200,000+ 50 cents struck in 1921, virtually all of them remained in storage at the mint. Demand for…

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A Favourite Coin – 1958 B.C. Dollar

My father was a Royal Naval man and so proud of his service. He was too young for the war but joined the Navy soon afterwards when he was 16 and served a full career. One of the ships he told us about was was the veteran battle cruiser HMS Newcastle which had seen such brave action in the war. Post-war, Dad joined the re-commissioned ship in the Far East. There was action in the Malayan Emergency when the ships guns where “fired in anger”. Then there was a long Foreign Service voyage from Ceylon to Burma to Hong Kong…

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My Favorite Canadian Coin

The 1949 silver dollar issue is considered by me, and many others to be the most beautiful of all Canadian circulating coins. I’m maybe more than a little biased being that I was born in Newfoundland and lived there until my late teens (and no it never leaves your blood). This coin was issued as the third commemorative in the silver dollars series to mark the entry of Newfoundland into the Confederation. The reverse shows “The Matthew”, the ship in which John Cabot is thought to have discovered the island in 1497. Below the waves is inscribed the Latin phrase…

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Canada’s Rarest Coin

Canadian Coin News > On 19th October 1911 “the Royal Mint of London, England sent dies for a new Canadian $1 silver coin to its Ottawa Branch; this coin is known today by collectors as the rarest coin from Canada. According to articles from the present day Royal Canadian Mint, when the Mint began striking coins in 1908 (then known as the Ottawa Branch of the Royal Mint), a one-dollar coin had not yet entered circulation, but was desperately needed; so in 1911, the Mint struck a trial one dollar coin in lead, while London’s Royal Mint struck two trial…

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