Canadian Junk Silver – Coin Compositions

Here is a consolidated list of Canadian “junk silver” coins. It does not include commemorative, specimen, or “first strike” coins. Wikipedia contradicts the Canadian mint in several locations, most notably on the dime and nickel. I used data from Wikipedia, then corrected with the mint. For older coins, consider using https://en.numista.com/. Where there were inconsistencies, I consolidated data using my best judgement. Enjoy!

I wrote this article with the intent to inform people of the valuable metals inside older coins. Most collectors know that coins older than 1967 have silver, but what about the ones which aren’t that old? In a short summary, those older than 2000 will contain a combination of nickel, copper, and/or zinc. These aren’t as valuable as silver, but if you collect them via your change, you’re getting them for free. Nickel being the most valuable under silver, jumped in price to nearly 3 times its current value around March 7, 2022.

For reference, metal prices per troy ounce (Update January 27, 2024)

 

 

One Dollar

 

Half Dollar

 

Quarter Dollar

 

Dime

 

Nickel

 

One Cent, or ‘Penny’

 

Conclusion & Observations

The dollar and half dollars are 80% silver until 1967 (inclusive), whereas the quarter is changed from 80% to 50% silver in the year 1967. This is why you may see dealers buying/selling 1967 quarters as 65% silver – halfway between 50% and 80%. There are several problems here:

First, if someone knew which ones were 50%, they could pass them off as “65%”. The second is the weight inconsistancy of a 50% vs and 80% 1967 quarter. The mint says their weights are different, but multiple other sources say they weigh the same – hence the “(5.83 g?)” value in that cell. Technically, you could figure this out by weighing the specific gravity of each coin (weighing it in water) but this would prove difficult for such small weights.

A similar situation exists for 1968 quarters, where they made them half silver, then at some point changed their composition to have no silver at all. However, their later 1968 composition was 99.9% nickel. The funny thing about pure nickel is that it is ferromagnetic. Yep, iron isn’t the only magnetic substance! Don’t believe me, try it out yourself!

Now dimes: The interesting thing to note is that things get simpler here. 1967 dimes are indeed all 80% silver, and switch to nickel in the following year. Simple. Great! However, once we move down to nickels, things get complicated quite quickly. Just look at the graph and see for yourself.

For nickels, the last year they had any silver in them was 1921. Back then, they were about 1/4^th the size (or more accurately, weight) of nickels in subsequent years – about 1/3^rd the size (weight) of modern nickels. This makes sense, because a nickel is half the fiat value of a dime. If its fiat value is half a dime, how can it be larger than a dime? My landlord was telling me something like, “nickels up until 1965 were silver” – they are about twice the size and weight of a dime, half the currency value, but have more silver? I don’t think so.

Then comes the penny. I don’t really care about pennies, but I included it, so I’ll make an observation. They were removed from circulation in 2013, so people think oh yay, save em’ cuz they’re copper! They all appear to be copper, right? Well, 2000 onwards, they are mostly steel. From 1997–1999, they are mostly zinc (the lowest value metal from our list). Then, from 1996 and earlier, they are mostly copper. Some of the pre-1920’s can be bought/sold as antiques/collectibles. They weight more than modern quarters so it’s quite a novelty.

Thanks for reading!

References

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodities

https://www.mint.ca/en/discover/canadian-circulation