What Canadian "nickels" lack in mintmarks, they easily make up for in variety of design. First off, I assume by "nickel", you mean large, base-metal 5¢ coins, as opposed to small silver ones.
Canada switched from a small, silver 5¢ coin to a larger, pure nickel 5¢ in 1922; prior to this, "five cents" were tiny silver coins; those were issued right back to 1858 (though they weren't issued every year).
Since 1922, over a dozen different designs and types have been issued for circulation, including several "one year types" and circulating commemoratives. From 1942 to 1962, the shape changed - they were issued as dodecagonal (12-sided) coins, rather than round. The composition has changed several times, too, with wartime issues made of brass and chromed steel, and postwar issues made of chromed steel, nickel, cupronickel and (recently) plated steel.
Collecting a full date set isn't too hard, either - 1925 is the key date in the series, and will set you back at least a hundred or two in reasonable condition, but all the other dates are common enough (though there are some scarce varieties, like 1953 strapless-near-leaf and strapped-far-leaf).
I'm not familiar with the albums available (a Canadian member might be better informed about these), but I do know that collecting the various types and varieties of Canadian "nickels" was popular here in Oz back in the 70's, and many old-time collectors down at the coin club still have their type sets of Canadian 5¢ even if they've otherwise largely given up on collecting darkside.
Edit: Beat by Topher.
Gotta type quicker.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Edited by Sap
11/02/2007 10:22 am
Posted 11/02/2007 06:48 am
