Canadian Silver Dollars - - " Cheaper Now Or In 1961?

I have the 1960 Standard Catalogue by Charlton. Two dates that showed a large deviation from the data presented here, were the 1950 Arnprior (EF worth 7.50 compared to $20) and the 1952 NWL (worth $6 compared to the $9.5). All other silver dollars were about 20% lower in 1960 vs 1961. The 1947 ML and Ptd showed no price difference over the one year. Looks like 1960 was a good time to buy in. Silver was about $0.90 an ounce in 1961.

Another good example, the Heritage Fun Auction Jan 4 will have a PL set of Canada silver dollars each year if they sell for minimum bids or more it would show more accurate values and inflation.

In 1961 couldn't you have gotten many of these coins for face value?

It is the consumer price index - based on a basket of goods.

Notice how most of the prices now are around 10x greater than 1961 on the common date dollars. Made the comment to relatives the other day we have literally moved one decimal place now from back then.

Interesting calculation - I love this sort of thing!

As a comparison, my very eccentric great aunt bought some shares of Northern Telegraph when she was a young woman kept the paper documents in her underwear drawer until she was 92 and then sold them for several million dollars. That was about 20 years ago. She, and Nortel Networks - which the company had become over time - have since passed on. That's an extreme example but it illustrates the point that an investment in almost any profit-driven interest (stock or bond) that is able to last through the decades is far more likely to pay off in value than any comparable investment in coins or other objects.

There are exceptions - people who are extremely well-informed and strategic and who play a long term game have surely made a fair bit of $$ in this business. Thinking of the Sandy Campbells of the world.... He made some very smart choices a long time ago and stuck with the formula that came about as a result. I imagine he also worked his arse off and spent a great deal of time travelling about chasing rare pieces of metal. Most of us are not him.

RWMW, to the Community!

For over 40 years, I believed that proof coins were worth more than business strike coins because their condition was always better.

However, although business strike coins might be struck in hundreds of thousands, the number of coins that survive in MS65 state is probably only a handful, whereas most of the proof coins that were struck in their hundreds or thousands survive in PL70 (certainly more than PL65) because they're kept in their packaging and don't circulate.

So the MS coins are rarer, and if they're rarer and the demand is just as great, shouldn't the MS coins command a higher price than proof coins ?