Low Mintages In 20th Century Canada

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 8,253
1945V Valued Member Canada 386 Posts	Posted 03/27/2009 08:40 am I was wondering, if any anyone knew the reasons for some of the following low mintages in Canadian coin history. 1921-1927: Low mintages for pennies and some nickels; and no dimes, quarters or halves were minted. What happened during this period ? Was it simply because a glut of coins existed and no new coins were needed? 1948: This one is obvious, the independence of India (and removal of ET IND IMP) and not enough time to prepare 1948 coins in quantity. 1970: This one is very strange. You would think with the switch over from silver to nickel two years prior, there would be huge quantities of dimes and quarters made to replace the silver coins quickly being culled from circulation. At first, I thought the October crisis had something to do with this, but it seems to be orchestrated by the RCM judging by the low quantities of coins made in 1969 and 1971 as well. 1991: The mintages this year are explained by a strike at the RCM and the fact that management was running the machines during the strike and were only able to produce smaller quantities of coins. 2000P: As it pertains to nickels, I believe they only started experimenting with plating technology late in the year. Report this Post to the Staff

chequer Pillar of the Community Canada 4227 Posts	Posted 03/27/2009 08:42 am Also, for the 25 cent pieces for 1991, the RCM knew the market would be inundated with quarters for the 1992 125 anniversary collection. Report this Post to the Staff
glenzy1 Pillar of the Community Canada 1554 Posts	Posted 03/27/2009 09:46 am Hello '45V, great topic and one I've been pondering over all my coin collecting life! The only conclusion I could assume is the small population levels in Canada back in the early 20th Century and the massive amount of circulating coins produced between 1916-1920 would have resulted in the small mintages of the mid 1920's! I've always been a strong believer in KEY dates (low mintage pieces) and have strived over the years to collect every Canadian decimal key date in I.C.C.S. mintstate as quickly as possible. This as been a priority of mine for the years between 1858-1967 and have currently acquired appr. 90% of the "key" dates in MS grades. If every collector of U.S. coins merely stopped collecting U.S. coins for a month and turned all their resources to collecting Canadian Key dates business strikes, they would dry up our market in a matter of weeks. I thank God the Americans havn't caught on about our Ultra Low mintages in the years between 1858-1948 for we'd be looking for another hobby to occupy our time with! Cheers.................Glenn Pinto Report this Post to the Staff
DVCollector Bedrock of the Community United States 10045 Posts	Posted 03/27/2009 11:42 am Another angle to consider when comparing Canadian mintages to US mintages is the contrast in population--and the corresponding need for coins. In 1920, Canada's population was about 8.7 million, while US population at the time was 106 million...or 12X of Canada's. In the case of the key series of cents (1922-25), it may be that after rather high mintages from 1916-20, production was scaled back for a few years until there was a need? (like Glenzy said above). Report this Post to the Staff
mkb Valued Member United States 324 Posts	Posted 03/27/2009 3:13 pm "1921-1927: Low mintages for pennies" In 1920, the large cent was discontinued, and in its place the small cent was minted. In 1920, 15,483,923 small cents were minted (in addition to 6,762,247 large cents that were minted that year as well), followed by 7,601,627 in 1921. Presumably, this resulted in more 1 cent coins than were needed (since the large cents continued in circulation for a while), so production slowed for a few years. Report this Post to the Staff
coinsnpaper Valued Member Canada 480 Posts	Posted 03/28/2009 04:39 am I think one major reason was the war 1914-1918, and on to 1921 in Russia. Coinage was made in huge quantities during the war, and then was not needed after the manufacturing returned to a more normal state. The depression came in 1929, which explains some of the low mintages after that, until the war again- 1939-45. I remember reading somewhere that the 1919 and 1920 half dollars were available in large quantities until at least 1927, which is why the 1921's were not really needed. It was decided to make the next issue 1929 rather than issuing new condition old coinage. Report this Post to the Staff
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