Canadian Coins

Canadian Notes

Rare Canadian Coins

Here is a list of rare Canadian coins and some history behind them.

1911 Canadian Silver Dollar

1921 Canadian 5 Cent Piece

1921 Canadian 50 Cent Piece

1936 Canadian Dot Coins (one cent and five-cent coins)

1948 Canadian Silver Dollar

1936 Dot Penny
1936 Dot Penny

The 1936 Canadian dot coins were issued after the abdication of King Edward VIII. They are considered not only as rare numismatic pieces but also as important historical items.

Edward VIII was king of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from January to December 1936. He chose to abdicate or step down from his throne to marry an American divorcee (explaining his short reign as king).

Aside from the moral controversies and social consequences, this decision has also caused a major problem to the Royal mint. The mint had almost completed the tools to produce 1937 coin dies that bore the portrait of Edward VIII (the 1936 coins still bore the image of the previous king who died early on such year, this was to follow a then common practice).

It would take a long time to create new dies for the coin that would feature the image of the monarch after Edward VIII. As an emergency measure, the mint decided to continue using the 1936 coin dies for the following year’s Canadian currency. To denote that the coins were actually minted in 1937, a dot is placed below the mint date.

There are only seven known rare dot coin specimens known to exist at present – three Canadian dot 1-cent coins and four 10-cent coins. There are still quite a number of the Canadian dotted 25-cent coins but no exact figures are known. All other 1936 Canadian coin dot specimens were melted by the mint.