Commems Collection Canadian: 2014-2015 Princess To Monarch Silver $5: Coins 11 & 12 Of 12

I decided to combine my post about the 11th and 12th coins of my silver $5 collecting pursuit due to the fact that the two coins up for discussion were issued as a similarly-themed pair as part of the same collection. The Princess to Monarch collection was spearheaded by The Royal Mint in the UK and was also offered by the Royal Canadian Mint ( RCM). For collection subscribers in Canada, the RCM's 2014 coin was the first to be released/issued.

The collection was intended to include 24 coins (12 pairs) issued by 12 countries as a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and her life as she progressed from being a young, relatively carefree Princess to becoming the Queen of a nation and a far-reaching Commonwealth with many duties and responsibilities.

The far-reaching collection (in terms of participating nations) was not fully delivered. I contacted The Royal Mint about the collection in early January 2020. I received a response in early February that stated that though details on the collection weren't found/available, staff at The Royal Mint Museum "did recall that the collection was stopped part way through" This lack-of-details response was definitely unexpected, but it at least confirmed what I was seeing in the marketplace.

I have been able to confirm that Alderney, Australia, Canada, Cayman Islands and Niue issued coins as part of the collection, but I haven't seen any others for sale in the secondary market. Of course, that's not definitive proof that other coins don't exist, but it does confirm that at least five of the 12 coin-pairs were issued. (If you've seen/own any other coins from this collection, please reply to this post with info about them!)

The Royal Mint was responsible for the design and striking of all of the collection's coins, save the coins from Canada and Australia; the RCM and Royal Australian Mint (RAM) handled the design and production of their respective coins.

The RCM proceeded with both of the coins it was to contribute to the collection, releasing one in 2014 and one in 2015.

And so...

Canada's 2014 $5 coin for the collection was subtitled "Supporting the Troops." It depicts Princess Elizabeth reviewing the troops at Fredericton, NB in 1951 while she and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, were in Canada for a Royal Visit. The coin's design, by Trevor Tennant, is based on a photograph by The Canadian Press. The Princess' Royal Visit began in Montreal on October 8, 1951 and crisscrossed Canada visiting all 10 of Canada's provinces before departing on November 12th; the Royal Couple did not make it to the Yukon or Northwest Territories.

2014 Princess to Monarch $5 Silver Coin


The 2015 $5 coin carried the inscription "Leading the Troops." Trevor Tennant was again responsible for the coin's design and again based his work on a photograph by The Canadian Press. The scene on the 2015 coin is of Queen Elizabeth II reviewing the Guard of Honour aboard HMCS St. John's, a Halifax-class frigate, in Halifax, NS. The ship took part in International Fleet Review Week which celebrated the centennial of the Royal Canadian Navy; the fleet review included 28 Coast Guard ships and Navy warships from Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Denmark and the United States . Fleet Review week was from June 28 through July 2, 2010; the Queen's review of the Guard took place on June 29, 2010.

2014 Princess to Monarch $5 Silver Coin


Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is seen walking behind her on each coin; he wears a military uniform in both scenes. Elizabeth and Philip were married on November 20, 1947.

Each of Canada's coins was struck on a 0.9999 fine silver planchet of a 36.07 mm diameter; the coin's each weigh 23.17 grams (Actual Silver Weight (ASW) of 0.74 troy ounces) and have a reeded edge.

Each of the coins had a maximum mintage of 15,000 (the collection's mintage was published at 10,000 per coin, so it appears that the RCM intended to have 5,000 additional coins available for individual sale). Per the 2014 RCM Annual Report (AR), the 2014 Princess to Monarch coin had sales of just 1,732 (individual and collection combined) with an additional 347 coins listed as sold in 2015. IMO, the total of just 2,079 coins points to a clear lack of interest by collectors for the collection and even the individual coins.

The 2015 Today's Monarch, Yesteryear's Princess coin had sales of 1,677 per the 2015 RCM AR. As the RCM had not published official sales statistics for 2016, I can only surmise that sales of the coin in 2016 mirrored the following-year sales of the 2014 coin and that the Today's Monarch coin sold between 300 and 400 units in 2016. If this is accurate, the 2015 coin's total sales are between 2,000 and 2,100 (just like the 2014 Princess to Monarch coin).

I was able to purchase the 2014 Princess to Monarch coin for $28 (CAD) and the 2015 Today's Monarch, Yesteryear's Princess coin for $26. This brought my total spend for the 12 coins I was after to $478 - $2 below my goal! I know $2 isn't much, but it was under my target budget!

I'm glad I worked on the set in late 2019 and early 2020 vs. over the past few months. The rise in silver spot prices has translated into a price increase for these coins as well - I don't believe I put the entire set together for an average of no more than $40 per coin if I started now.

I hope you enjoyed my series of posts on Canada's silver 36 mm $5 commemorative coins. It took me longer than I had originally planned to get through all of the posts, but I did enjoy researching and writing them.

Will I expand my $5 collection? As I stated way back at the beginning of this journey (A New Collecting Pursuit), I may eventually add the 2013-2015 Canada Bank Notes Series of four coins, but I will likely wait for silver to calm down a bit before moving forward.

Note: Images are courtesy of the Royal Canadian Mint, http://www.mint_ca. I will upload images of my coins soon.