Does Sherritt Mint Use A Mint Mark On Their Products?

No, they do not appear to have had a universally used "mintmark", similar to the FM mintmark that Franklin Mint used.

Some of their earlier pieces have a "theta-shaped" mark, which is actually a miniaturized version of the company logo. The mark and enlarged logo can both be seen on this ebay example. These medals from 26 years later have no mintmarks or initials on them at all.

I saw a book in my library the other day all about Canadian Trade dollars. I'll try to get it tomorrow, I flicked through it and I remember seeing a diagram of the saddle like in nala's second coin. Perhaps there's something about mint marks in it.

Hey Val was the book by a guy named Serge Pelletier? I have an older book by him that is pretty much useless. I am sure his newer books are much better but I have yet to track one down. Most of my tokens that were minted before the book was published are omitted.

Nalabergone, I seen (saw?) the mint mark on your trade tokens almost instantly. I went and grabbed my date set of Fredericton and Woodstock NB trade tokens and couldn't see them at all. I will go threw my Saint Andrew By the Sea set but I am sure they are mark free too.

Since I have you can I ask you a question? Starting in 2007 I noticed that the Saint Andrews tokens has a smooth edge as opposed to a reeded edge. Did Saint Andrews switch to a different mint or did Sherrit mint start using a different plancent?

As far as I know, the Sherritt Mint shut down or at least reduced operations some time in the 80s. On this date, the Edmonton Klondike and Calgary Stampede dollars both saw their final regular issues, and it corresponds with an overall decline in different Trade dollar types at the same time. (However, the Jasper Souvenir series continued at least into the 90s, so this could be entirely wrong.) But what about dollars struck after the 80s? I wish I knew. It seems like after this date, Trade dollars saw an increase in their face value - $2.00 replaced $1.00 as the "typical" denomination, and some bimetallic $3 tokens started to appear, definitely not struck by Sherritt. Here's a strange example of a "modern" (i.e. post-Sherritt) continuation of a pre-existing Trade dollar series.


1986 - worth one dollar.


1997 - worth two dollars? Also, the strike quality seems to have improved, as the fields are more polished.

The change in the legends can simply be attributed to the workings of Strathcona County's municipal government, but who was striking these things and why did they change the denomination? The design is exactly unchanged, so it must be the same company, but I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. The best-known documentation is Pelletier's catalog, but it tells us nothing about contemporary Trade dollars because it seems to have ended in 1993. There is one other catalog, though, self-published in Edmonton by one Jack Sauchenko (now deceased, very unfortunately) which had no pictures but was current until a few years ago. This might be very useful but I think it's also very rare.

OK, this is what I get for pretending to be an expert. Your Maritime tokens are probably not struck by Sherritt - Sherritt was responsible for many Maritime tokens, but Alberta's a long way away from New Brunswick and there is definitely more than one private mint in Canada. (In fact, there was more than one in Edmonton alone.) The change in your edges is probably just random - the reeding equipment may have broken or been misplaced, or maybe the supplier changed. Do you have any pictures?

Have no idea who made them but the reason for the change in the denomination was probably do to increased cost of production. I don't know what they cost to make back in 1997, but today a silver dollar size medal in copper or coppernickel will cost you between $3.50 and $5 each so aren't going to be selling them or using them as a dollar.