Canada 1947 Maple Leaf dollar is actually a 1948 Dollar

YQQ

1947 Maple leaf story and why it is in fact a 1948 Dollar

To strike the 1948 silver Dollar, a new obverse die would be needed. Because of material shortages or whatever reasons the Britsh gave, the matrices and punches, produced by the Royal Mint in London, were not available in time to mint the 1948 Dollar (and other 1948 coinage).
This was a serious problem for the Royal Canadian Mint as the 1948 coins had to be produced. Unfortunately, it was not possible as the new designs had not arrived yet from England. Then, in the early part of 1948 someone came up with a very smart, brilliant and effective idea:
Continue minting 1947 dated coins (blunt 7 1947 regular coins), but to positively identify and indicate they were struck in 1948, a small Maple leaf was added next to the 7.
This procedure was terminated as soon as the proper tools had arrived from Britain and 1948 dollars were struck from that time forward.

A similar procedure was exercised earlier in 1936 with some quarters, a few dimes and, apparently a couple of one cent coins. At the time a Dot was placed on a specific spot on the reverse of the coins. The quarters are frequently encountered, but the dimes and cents are so scarce that auction results are right up in the hundreds of thousands.

ksammut

Neat story!

cecropiamoth

Good write up YQQ!!

While dated 1947, this is the exact reason I wouldn't consider it for the basic date set. Still would be a cool coin to own someday! But I'll likely try to fill that slot with the nicest Blunt 7 (non-doubled HP) that I can afford. It is the easiest of the five different non-ML 1947 dated Canada dollars that could fill the slot. An attractive pop 139 MS63 would certainly work or perhaps a stretch to a pop 59 MS64. Beyond that, for the non-ML 1947 dollars, only 9 coins total have been graded 65, none higher.

Jeff

Timbuk3

Interesting story, thanks for sharing !!!

YQQ

Thanks guys..

@cecropiamoth said:

An attractive pop 139 MS63 would certainly work or perhaps a stretch to a pop 59 MS64. Beyond that, for the non-ML 1947 dollars, only 9 coins total have been graded 65, none higher.

Jeff, I believe you are only counting coins Graded by our host ? Or did you also check other TPG's?
H

cecropiamoth

YQQ,

Correct, I was referencing just the PCGS pop report data.

NGC and ICCS coins would certainly bump those numbers up. ANACS and ICG have probably grade their fair share as well.

Take care,

Jeff

DBSTrader2

2 follow-up questions/comments:

(1) I'm surprised the Mint had problems creating the necessary 1948-dated die in time. After all, it wasn't like nobody saw Indian independence coming, was it? Or was it just something that fell thru the cracks?

(2) Did the Canadian government/Mint HAVE to produce 1948-dated coins? Is there a specific mandate somewhere that says this has to be done, or just a strong desire not to miss a year?

Thanks!

YQQ

Have NO idea.
However, at the time there were "probably, maybe, possibly some open backdoors so the smoke from all the smokers could escape easier." (like in 1967). the Why's, and the Why nots", I have no idea.
I believe it was just a perfect solution to a unexpected problem. Am not aware of a mandate "to produce" at all.

Sapyx

In 1947, it was not yet certain that all of India would become independent. Some princely states were adamantly pro-Empire and anti-Republic. Britain's official position was that the princely states were freed from their treaty obligations to remain part of the Empire, and could choose to join India, Join Pakistan, or remain independent, as they wished. But privately, Britain had no desire to see India become "balkanized" any further than required by Partition and assured both India and Pakistan that recalcitrant states would not receive any support or encouragement from Britain for self-rule.

Hyderabad, for example, was a large landlocked Muslim-ruled, Hindu-populated state in southern India. The Nizam (prince) knew he would be dethroned and his vast family wealth nationalized if it were forced to join the Republic, and there was no way either Britain or the Republic would allow Hyderabad to become a Pakistani exclave. They declared their intent to remain independent, under British protection.

India (correctly, no doubt) declared that the majority Hindu population of Hyderabad would prefer to become part of India rather than remain under Muslim rule, and invaded Hyderabad in September 1948. Hyderabad was surrounded, had only a small army and border defenses were nonexistent, so they had no chance of resisting the invasion. Appeals for aid to the fledgling United Nations and to Britain proved fruitless. Hyderabad was assimilated within a week.

So at the time the 1947 Maple Leaf coins were being made, there were still some Indians who recognized King George VI as their Emperor. This was, presumably, the reason why neither Britain nor Australia saw any need to hurry to delete "Emperor of India" from their coinages in 1948. Only Canada showed this peculiar reluctance to offend the new Republic and went out of their way to strike inoffensively back-dated coinage.

Sapyx

As for the question of the necessity for coinage issue at all in 1948: Besides Britain itself (and with India become independent), Canada, South Africa and Australia were the three remaining British dominions with economies large enough that constant production of coinage was necessary - they'd simply run out of coins if they stopped making them for more than a few months. They were also the only British dominions to have their own branch mints; all other colonies had to source their coins from London or one of the branch or chartered mints. With all three nations also having precious metal mines within their territories, continuing coinage issue supported the local economy, too - after all, the dominion governments who controlled a mint made a profit (seigniorage) on every coin produced from raw metal; why would they stop doing that?

YQQ

I am amazed about your subject knowledge Fantastic.
I was born in Europe and was never interested in world history.
But this is fascinating for a -None-History person.
However, i believe the question "WHY" is still open,
sent you a PM