Canadian silver and nickel dollars

[shirohniichan]

I thought I'd expand on my thread regarding 1967 Confederation Centennial sets to include prior and later silver and nickel dollars.

 

As I collected circulation, "prooflike" and speciment silver and nickel dollars I researched how collectors originally bought the coins. From what I have read, until 1949 the Royal Canadian Mint referred requests from collectors for coins to the Bank of Canada. In other words, if you wanted to buy coins you had to go to a bank and buy circulation strikes. With its new Numismatic Department, the RCM began selling coins individually or in sets. Starting in 1953 the RCM sold dollars individually (wrapped in tissue according to dealers I've spoken with) or coin sets in white cardboard six-coin holders wrapped in cellophane. A coin dealer, James Haxby, noticed that the collector coins looked better than regular circulation strikes, so he dubbed them "prooflikes". Prooflikes were struck on specially prepared planchets using slower moving machinery to give them better strikes and more careful handling. All coins were struck on chrome-plated dies, so most came out having mirrored surfaces. So "prooflike" wasn't a description of the mirrored surfaces of collector coins (again, circulation strikes also had mirrored surfaces) but a description of coins from a specific minting process.

 

From the late 1950s until 1964 collectors could buy individual silver dollars from the RCM packaged in cellophane holders. In 1965 through 1967 numismatic silver dollars could only be purchased in year sets. Interest in Canadian coins grew so much by 1965 that speculators not only bought individual numismatic silver dollars and coin sets but also circulation strikes in bag quantities. Demand grew so much that the RCM announced that it would stop selling individual silver dollars and would limit year sets to 2 million on a first-come-first-served basis with mail orders beginning January 1, 1965. (limit 5 per family). Sky-high demand led speculators and collectors to send in orders on the first day of the year, so that when the Mint opened for business on January 2 it already had more than 2 million orders. It returned the excess orders (estimated at 4 million orders) and filled accepted orders as quickly as it could at the usual $3.00 per set. The excess demand reached the attention of Parliament, and by after discussion the Finance Minister announced that the RCM would fill all orders that came in at a new price of $4.00 each. While less than 1 million orders came after the announcement, the new policy effectively popped the numismatic bubble and prices for 1965 sets on the secondary market plummeted. 2,904,352 uncirculated sets (commonly called "prooflike sets") were sold in 1965, but after the bubble burst only 672,514 sets were sold in 1966.

 

Centennial celebrations gave the RCM the opportunity to try to recapture collector interest by offering more than the ordinary uncirculated sets, and it introduced a new silver medallion set (with PL coins) and a $20 gold set (with specimen coins). 963,714 of the regular uncirculated sets sold for $4.00 each, 72,463 of the silver medallion sets at $12 each, and 337,687 of the gold sets at $40.00 each.

 

Speculator interest revived in 1967 as the price of silver rose to the point the bullion value got close to the face value of 10, 25 and 50 cent coins and silver dollars. As speculators' interest in coins focused on bullion value and not the coins themselves, the RCM did not receive as much interest in the new smaller-sized 1968 nickel dollars. They sold 521,641 uncirculated sets and an unknown quantity of individually cased dollars in specimen strikes. 1968 and 1969 cased dollars did not sell well because the Mint didn't market them aggressively. The RCM also offered prooflike nickel dollars in pliofilm strips of 5 coins in 1968-69. In 1970 cased dollar sales increased (there is even one version in a case with Japanese writing for those sold as the Canadian pavilion at the World's Fair in Osaka that year).

 

Beginning in 1971 the RCM offered new cased 36 mm .500 fine silver dollars in specimen strikes in addition to the 32 mm nickel specimen cased dollars. Foam inserts in the cases toned some 1972-73 silver dollars wildly. Double-dollar "Prestige" specimen sets appeared in 1971 and 1972 with two nickel dollars. From 1973 to 1980 specimen sets contained on nickel and one silver dollar. Uncirculated coin sets packaged in pliofilm continued on as usual, but in 1971 the RCM introduced seven-coin "Custom" sets with cent through nickel dollars and an extra cent to show the common obverse design. These were packaged in vinyl cases through 1975. From 1976 to 1980 the coins in the Custom Sets were upgraded to specimen strikes, also, so only the pliofilm uncirculated sets contained PL strikes.

 

Here are photos of the dollars I could find handy in my collection.

 

1968 prooflikes in both the standard uncirculated year set and new 5-coin pliofilm strip

 

1968 and 1969 cased specimen dollars

 

1970 cased specimen nickel dollar

 

1970 cased nickel and 1973 cased silver specimens

 

1972 Prestige specimen set with velvet slipcase

[shirohniichan]

Notes on collecting business strikes:

 

Business strike Canadian silver dollars (issued 1935-1967) are fairly easy to find in mint state. Sure, the 1948 is expensive, as are the 1945, 1947 varieties, and the Arnprior die-state varieties to a lesser extent. They were saved in relatively large quantities when compared with the later nickel dollars. The non-collecting public saved the 1935, 1939, 1949, 1958, 1964 and 1967 commemoratives, and they also saved the first year of issue 1937 and 1953 types. Speculators and collectors both saved large numbers of silver dollars from about 1960 until the last issue in 1967. Dealers still come across bags of them in quantities of 100 to 6,000. Speculation fever grew to the extent that people even bought bag quantities of base metal coins. A local dealer said he had a bag of 6,000 1965 cents until fairly recently (he said he lost it).

 

The nickel dollars of 1968 and 1969 were not popular with collectors or the general public, so they are tough to find in mint state. Most likely any high grade MS piece will be a misattributed numismatic issue (i.e. PL) instead of a true business strike. When commemorative nickel dollars began production in 1970 the non-collecting public and collectors were more likely to keep MS business strikes as mementos or for their collections.

 

Notes on specimens:

Specimen-strike silver dollars were not make for the public (except for specimen sets sold through the Bank of Canada in 1937) until 1967. Specimen coins were struck for sets used for diplomatic or other presentation purposes, not for sale to collectors. 1967 specimens are fairly easy to find, but the 1968 and 1969 dollars are not. I don't have the latest Charlton Guide, but my 2007 edition lists their mintage as "N/A". It would not surprise me if TPGs labeled nicer PLs as "specimens".

[brwnprkns]

Thanks for the research, very informative