Question About PL Silver Dollars.

"The numismatic section of the Royal Canadian Mint was established in 1949. Prior to this the Ottawa branch of the bank of Canada had accepted orders for Uncurculated sets of the coinage for the current year at face value plus postage. The sets were shipped in cellophane envelopes until 1953 and in white cardboard holders enclosed in cellophane envelopes from 1953 to 1960."

Were only sets produced 1949-1952? Or were individual $1 also available? The grading of PL seems to be mostly $1, with some 25c and 50c.

I wonder what those cellophane envelopes looked like? Are there any surviving examples?

Looking at variants of the card in post-silver "PL sets" (I don't think the Mint ever used the term):

"Your uncirculated coins have been carefully selected and are the best available at the time of shipment" (1969, 1976)
"Your uncirculated coins have been carefully selected and are the best of their kind" (1987)
"These uncirculated coins have been carefully selected to provide you with the best examples of their kind" (1998)

Didn't PL come out of the grading community, not the mint? Presumably it was created to capture the notion that it was more than simply special selection, but special production too.

So, what were they 1949-1953? Is PL a faulty grade, or were PL type coins produced?

More and more care:

1. Carefully selecting and handing coins coming off the business strike line.
2. Only doing this for the early production on new dies
3. Put a little extra care into those dies before putting them in service
4. Selecting the blanks into the early production

I would think at least #3 is needed to get PL type coins.

Where did you get that description?

IIRC, it is how the mint described their pre-proof specimen coin process. When proofs started being offered, they were described as double-struck.

Early proofs and specimens had a BU finish, so it was all grade improvements on a similar finish until cameo and speckled/etched specimen fields were introduced.

"The coins are produced with polished dies, struck on polished planchets and receive special handling" - 2011

That seems right (although "are" was wrong). Of course, not dropped into a bins to collide with other coins would be special handling too.

In 1965, 2.9 million PL sets were made. Could 17.4 million coins really have been managed individually by hand?

At 2 coins per second two employees could do it in a year.

In 1964, Norval Parker, Master of the Mint stated that before 1958 coins for the uncirculated sets were the best coins selected from the ordinary run of coinage. He goes on to say that by 1963, coins for the uncirculated sets are struck on specially prepared planchets with select new dies,at slower speed and higher pressure,in a controlled environment,and handled with gloves. He does not, at that time, state exactly when these changes occurred.

Macbane...No problem at all and very good question. The coin removed from an uncirculated set will not change what it was, be it prooflike, specimen, or NBU etc. The RCM has changed what it calls uncirculated sets over the years. Most pliofilm sets where called prooflike sets. I'm primarily a collector of 1967 and earlier coins. so someone will give you info on the sets issued after 1967.

At some point some people started objecting to the post-silver uncirculated set coins being called PL.

ICCS uses an NBU comment, meaning numismatic BU, and MS grading (e.g. MS-67 NBU).

CCCS uses a unique Unc designation (e.g. Unc-67)

Charlton lists MS grading, and added NC meaning non-circulating (e.g. MS-67 NC) and refers to the sets a BU uncirculated. Charlton lists 1967 and earlier in the numismatic section/volume, whereas 1968 and onward are in the collector coin section/volume.

Looking at a 2003 Charlton, they were still referring to 1968-1980 as PL. But, designated 1981 onward as "Uncirculated" claiming the mint classified them as such in 1981.

For Charlton, it looks like cameo effect perhaps was one determining factor in their thinking. Whereas cameo was a common feature of silver PL, nickel being much harder didn't easily take a cameo effect. There certainly are cameo nickel unc. set coins, but I don't think the effect is as attractive, and it doesn't seem to be a major consideration among collectors.

The 2003 Charlton designates the relief of 1967 and before as Ca. (Cameo) or Br. (Brillian), while only designating Br. for 1968 and onward.

Considering cameo was a somewhat accidental affect of the die preparation, and not universal to the production run, it seems odd that such an effect is being used to designate the finish.

Another twist is that PL is also used for US coins.

Did Charlton get the term from the US?

SPL - Semi-proof-like
PL - Proof-like
DMPL - Deep mirror proof-like