High-Grade Certified George VI/QE II Canadian Silver Halves are Tough!

giorgio11

So, I know that the Victoria halves circulated extensively. What surprises me, though, as I try to complete Registry Sets of the later silver Canadian halves from George VI (1937) through QE II (1967), is how tough they are to find even in Gem PCGS grade. I certainly appreciate that Canadian collectors prefer ICCS or raw coins. And I realize some of these silver issues were undoubtedly melted. Nonetheless, they still seem to be significantly rarer than their U.S. counterparts, at least grade-for-grade as compared to, say, their Walking Liberty and Franklin/Kennedy counterparts. You can seldom find a single Gem PCGS silver Canadian half on eBay. So, my Canadian friends, is there some factor I am missing? Do you have the same experience? Can you further explain their apparent rarity? Any comments appreciated.

Best Regards,

George

lordmarcovan

You're not telling me anything i didn't already know as pertains to Victoria. Hers are indeed tough! I never did much with the later monarchs, though.

PS- how do the mintages of Geo VI and Lizzie stack up against their US contemporaries like Walkers, Franklins, and Kennedies? Surely there weren't as many made.

giorgio11

The first-year Geo VI issue, 1937, seems to predictably have been saved in greater quantity proportional to its small mintage of 192,000 pieces (they appear more frequently).
The second-year 1938 is far rarer in high grades despite an equal mintage (all figures are for circulation strikes as given in Haxby).
The 1939 -- 288,000.
1940-1942 -- 1.7 million to 2 million each
1943 -- 3.1 million
1944 -- 2.5 million
1945 -- 2 million
1946 -- 950,000
1947 Straight 7 (aka Curved Left 7) and Curved 7 (aka Curved Right 7) -- 425,000
1947 Maple Leaf, Straight 7 (aka Curved Left 7) and Curved 7 (aka Curved Right 7, enormous key variety) -- 38,000
1948 (key) 38,000
1949 -- 859,000
later issues were generally in the 2 million - 8 million range except for 1954 and 1955 at 500,000 and 750,000. QE II started of course in 1953. So some of the later issues are not that far different from their Franklin half counterparts (but struck at only one mint, not two or three)

Best Regards,

George

ProofArtworkonCircs

I collected Canadian halves from circulation starting in the early 1950's fro,m my home base in Bangor Maine and yearly trips to the Moncton New Brunswick area.
My impression was that Canadian halves were scarcer than USA halves although you did get them in change regularly. I often found that banks did not have rolls of them.
I did get 2 rolls from a Canadian Tire store. They gave me a discount since they knew there were a couple of US halves in the rolls.

I accumulated about 100 Newfoundland halves in 17 different dates. I never found a pre-George VI Canadian half. I came across Newfoundland twenty cent pieces. These always circulated as quarters.

edit: Added "-" and "Canadian" around "George VI". (didn't make sense as written - sorry.)

brg5658

I haven't searched out Canada halves, but I do have one Newfoundland half. They are pretty difficult to hunt down as well -- I've been looking for a nice Vicky I can afford for a long time. Some day!

1960NYGiants

George - your observations on halves is fairly accurate. Canada did a pretty good job of monitoring the amount of circulating coinage needed basically minting coins per order of the central bank(s). And people used them, so high grade examples are scarce up to 1960.

Then for some reason the RCM went nuts and issued millions of plio-film packs. They have been trading a bullion for years, not handled very well, and subject to the melting pot. The real nice coins were cut out of the packs early and handled carefully. I've looked at 100's of sets: very hard to find one with the 50c or $1 coins without contact marks. And when found the TPGs call them PL-66/67s instead of MS65/66s especially if there is any cameo.

Pokermandude

<< <i>Then for some reason the RCM went nuts and issued millions of plio-film packs... And when found the TPGs call them PL-66/67s instead of MS65/66s especially if there is any cameo. >>



Unlike with American business strile and set coins, there is a difference in the style of strike between the Canadian set coins and regular business strike coins. They will all grade as Proof-like rather than MS. "Prooflike" basically means coins issued for the PL sets, whereas all business strikes will grade as mintstate. This is in contrast to the American struck coins/grading, where PL generally means an early/better struck business strike coin.

giorgio11

This last comment is a real eye-opener as I have a roll of 1964s in the SDB and was contemplating sending most of the nicer ones in to PCGS. Now that I look at them again, I do believe they would come back as PL not MS.

YQQ

Giorgio,

can you please define High grades?

Are you suggesting that this applies to all George and QE 50 cent coins?

for some coins a AU 50 would be a rare high grade, while for others a MS 62 would be very common.

Pokermandude

Originally posted by: giorgio11
This last comment is a real eye-opener as I have a roll of 1964s in the SDB and was contemplating sending most of the nicer ones in to PCGS. Now that I look at them again, I do believe they would come back as PL not MS.

The easiest way to tell the difference is that business strike coins have regular "cartwheel" lustre, whereas PL set coins do not. Both business strike coins and PL coins can have Cameos, although they are much more common on PL coins.