Do You Think That The Mint Puts Out Too Many Commeratives

In 2004 I calculated that if you bought 1 of every coin they made for that year worked out to around $16.000 Canadian funds.Now take the addition of the Olympic,kilo,new series and add the million dollar gold coin you are over 3 million for in that year alone.To answer your question there is allot of junk coins made by the mint today.The sad thing is they make them to no true mintage's just demand. My favorite coins to collect are errors out of fresh rolls.I only pay face for the coin and always bring a better percentage of return. As we know wait 5 years to bye mint stuff for 1/2 price.

Goodness, the mint has gone crazy ... home shopping network type of reputation now. I remember a mint rep getting angry at me years ago when they started this and I critisized them. They seem to feel that since they are some historic government institution, they are above reproach. It's a shame really.

As an American, I probably don't appreciate the full breadth of Canadian commems, but generally the subject matter seems more interesting to me than US issues which deal mostly with politics, ie former leaders or enlarging territorial boundaries.

However, when I look through my Charlton catalogue, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of "collector coins", and wonder if there is ultimately any point to such a confusing array of coins, compositions, and strikes (proof, specimen, proof-like)? The same could be said of US commems too, which I don't collect either.

Still, I admit there are a few interesting issues, which may either be considered distinctive or funny, depending on one's style of collecting...such as this example:

Gotta admit--there are few proof guitar picks out there in sterling silver.
Perfect for a rock band of milkmen with cow backup. Moo!

Well there is definitely alot to buy at the mint, however I find its nice since they have some for every price range, I mean of course somebody wouldnt be able to buy them all, but I find alot of their stuff like work of art. I find their proof collection to be real nice, the 9 Coin Gold vancouver set is particular nice.
Anyway to each his own opinion, however I think you should collect wtv suit you :)

Personnally its the Proof Coins.:)

I don't think there are too many commemorative Canadian coins for the same reason I don't believe there are too many different t-shirts at the store when want to buy one. I like the variety and the wide range of topics covered. I often find it hard to resist buying them, but once again, it's nice to have a choice.

On the other hand, it probably makes owning one less special than it once was (when there were only 2 or 3 commemorative coins issued in a year).

The Mint has suddenly discovered what a cash cow striking commemoratives (no matter how dubious) can be.

It was all well and good when the commemoratives were regular coins (see the dollars for '35, '49, '58, '64, etc.), but all of this started with the '67 Gold $20 piece. Then they went on to the '76 Olympic series, which was a fiasco, and one would think they would have learned from that.

I don't mind it when we get a commemorative buisiness strike; that's fine. Such coins are used to raise awareness of something among the general public, and that works. I honestly don't mind all the new quarters coming out that aren't caribous. They're made to circulate.

And I can understand the commemorative silver dollar every year in the proof set because of past tradition. But that's where I draw the line.

Strange denominations and paint and holograms just don't do it for me, because these are never meant to circulate, and because of that, they're not really coins at all -- they're just bullion with pretty pictures, and as such, they're speculation material, more than anything else.