Featured Greysheet Pricing for December: Canadian Specimen 5-Cent Coinage

This month’s featured pricing covers Canadian Specimen strike five cent pieces, both silver (1858–1921) and nickel (1922–1953). Canadian coinage has always differed, for a variety of reasons, from United States coinage in that many of the early essay or special strikes from the mint are designated Specimen rather than Proof. The Royal Canadian Mint did not have the requisite equipment to strike Proof coinage, so Specimen strikes generally lack heavy (cameo) contrast between the fields and the devices as is more common on Proof strikes, even though the planchets and dies were polished in the same manner as Proofs would be. Additionally, the Specimen strikes from 1908 to 1936 were done in a matte rather than mirror finish, and then from 1937 to 1939 they come with both matte and mirror surfaces. The Royal Canadian Mint did not begin striking true Proof coinage until 1981.

Pricing chart of Canadian Specimen 5c from the December 2023 Greysheet magazine.