OK, what's the difference between Specimen and Proof Canadian coins?
XpipedreamR
Posts: 8,059 ✭✭
In this thread, Canadian "proof" dollar, someone rightly pointed out that the coin was a specimen rather than a proof.
What's the difference? I had thought it was the same thing, just different names.
So the Canadians have given us
business strikes
prooflike strikes
specimen strikes
proof strikes
Yikes! Am I forgetting anything?
What's the difference? I had thought it was the same thing, just different names.
So the Canadians have given us
business strikes
prooflike strikes
specimen strikes
proof strikes
Yikes! Am I forgetting anything?
0
Comments
The difference between prooflikes, specimens, and proofs is not well known south of the border, and that is only reason why there are so many PL and specimen sets on eBay listed as "proof sets." ACG even slabbed a Centennial silver medal as a "proof dollar."
Obscurum per obscurius
Some chronology ...
Business Strikes: 1858 to date
High Quality Specimens: 1858 to 1953, and 1964 and 1965
- usually in a clamshell type case
- easy to differentiate from Business Strikes (and later year Prooflikes) by the strike
Prooflikes: 1953 to date, some argue 1949 to date for dollars
- early years in cardboard holders covered with cellophane, later years in pliofilm
- somewhat easy to differentiate from Business Strikes by the strike, except in bad years (some mid-late 1960's years)
Modern Specimens: 1970 to date
- book-like holders
- somewhat easy to differentiate from Business Strikes by the strike, hard to differentiate from Prooflikes
Proofs: 1981 to date
- book-like holders
- easy to differentiate from the others by a high quality strike / frosted devices
Someday, I'll put together a more complete listing, with maybe some photos.
My World Coin Type Set
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
Mint sets (i.e "Proof-like" sets in cardboard) exist from 1951 and 1952, but very few of the coins in these sets were PL. The same could be said about 1953. The Proof-Like coins were early strikes with new dies/just polished dies that were hand selected and put into the sets. The 1949 dollar is sometimes found in PL because they were better preserved since they the first Canadian coins to be distrubuted in rolls (you could have bought them at the post office, I have heard) rather than in mint bags.
After 1977 all poof-like sets actually contain specimen coins rather than hand-selected business strike coins. However, the ones that were produced in Winnipeg instead of Ottawa (where the collector products are produced) are just business strikes.
Trying to complete a two of each collection of British India coins.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
Yep, and it's even worse than that. A good example is the George V Specimen 5 Cents, which is Matte for all years except 1924, where the Specimen has a Mirror finish.
My World Coin Type Set
Way to go guys. Thanks.
Clankeye
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
P.S. Do not drink and look at the first post.
09/07/2006
<< <i>Clank, you're one of the resident experts on Canadian coins! >>
Not true, eh.
Still learning--thanks to threads like this.
Clankeye