Rare Canadian Coins

Most of the 1948 Canadian coins are of scarce mintage with the 1948 Canadian silver dollar being especially rare.

The 1937-1952 Canadian coins, like other coins of countries under British rule, bore the wording in Latin “George VI by the Grace of God, King and Emperor of India”. In 1947, India gained its independence from the British Empire.

Consequently, currency reform had to be implemented for the next year’s set of circulation coins—the phrase “Emperor of India” had to be omitted. New coin dies were needed for the 1948 Canadian coins but it was only in the later part of 1948 that the appropriate coin dies were available for use.

While waiting for the new coin dies, production of coins went on using the 1947 coin dies. A tiny maple leaf would be placed beside the mint date to indicate that the coins were actually minted in 1948. These coins are called the 1947 Canadian maple leaf coin which is very popular among coin collectors today.

The mint was only able to mint 18,600 pieces of the actual 1948 Canadian silver dollars which are considered the rarest date of Canadian silver dollar issued for circulation.