Back in 2002, Canada was celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne. To mark the occasion, the
RCM's annual commemorative silver dollar featured a "Golden Jubilee" theme. Its reverse design depicted the Queen in the famous Royal coach known as the
Gold State Coach, while the obverse featured the dual daters "1952-2002."
The horse-drawn
Gold State Coach was built for King George III. It was completed in 1762 and has been used for every British coronation since that of George IV in 1821. Queen Elizabeth II rode in it during her Coronation procession in 1953 and again during her Silver and Golden Jubilees in 1977 and 2002, respectively.
An excellent image of the Gold State Coach can be found here:
http://www.royal.gov.uk/theroyalres...yalmews.aspx At the coin's right (on the commemorative reverse) is seen the
Gold State Coach from a slight distance allowing its full grandiosity to be seen - look closely and you can also see the Queen and Prince Philip seated inside! On the coin's left is depicted a close-up view of the Queen as she looks out a window of the Coach and smiles to a crowd of well wishers.
The silver dollar was available to collectors in three versions: Proof, Brilliant and Gold-Plated. The use of full gold-plating was a nice touch for a coin commemorating the Queen's "Golden Jubilee." It was also a fairly inexpensive way for collectors to own a 36mm "gold" dollar at a generally reasonable cost.
The standard, non-plated proof dollar was available individually for $33.95 and as part of the standard 2002 Proof Set for $81.95. The brilliant uncirculated version of the coin was only available individually at a price of $24.95.
The gold-plated version of the silver dollar was available only as part of a Special Edition Golden Jubilee Proof Set. The set retailed for $99.95.
Just over 33,490 of the Special Edition sets were sold, a little more than half the number sold for the standard proof set with the non-plated silver dollar. I believe this disparity in sales points out the difference between the number of collectors who were annual "Proof Set" collectors at the time vs. the number of collectors who were specifically "Silver Dollar" collectors looking to keep their collections complete with an example of every type.
The 2002 gold-plated commemorative dollar remains the only dollar in the
RCM's long-running commemorative silver dollar series to be fully plated in gold; since 2005 the
RCM has issued a proof set with a silver dollar that features only selective (or partial) gold-plating.
It's anyone's guess as to whether we'll see another silver dollar with full gold plating from the
RCM. If such a coin is produced, I hope the gold plating is germane to the subject being commemorated and not just a gimmick to create another type coin for collectors to buy.
Posted 06/10/2013 10:46 pm
