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According to the information source about Canadian coins, it is stated that the first silver dollar was launched in 1935 to commemorate the jubilee of King George V. At the time, the reverse of the coin shows a voyager and an aboriginal along a birch-back canoe. The lines that are faint in the background represent the Northern Lights, and this design remained on the dollar right until 1986.

Another dollar is the 1947 Voyageur Dollar, of which ten varieties still exist. These are placed into the categories of the Blunt Seven, the Maple Lead and the Pointed Seven.

There were two styles of the pointed seven canadian dollar in 1947. In one the 7 was a very tall figure with its lower tail pointing towards the right. On some of the coins there is also a dot next to the number 7, which was down to an imperfection in the die used to create the coin. There are six different varieties of this Pointed 7 coin. The shorter 7 that had the tail almost pointing straight down was nicknamed the Blunt even.

From 1950-52 there were technical problems plaguing the Canadian mint and the production of the Canadian silver dollar. There were many differences in the coins produced each year, and a group of collectors simply made an arbitrary decision that a certain pattern of partial water lines and the right hand of the voyager canoe should be collected separately. These were known as Arnprior configurations, and they consisted of two and a half water lines at the right of the coin.In 1952 there was a modified reverse of the Canadian silver dollar made with no water lines at all. This reverse was also different due to the fact that the canoe image that appear on the coin has bigger islet tip at its right end. This made it different from the Arnprior coins and was created this way deliberately.

In every denomination of coin of 1953 there was an element in common. This was that the two obverses existed. These are commonly identified as the Shoulder Fold and the No Shoulder Fold. During this year, the coinage featured the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. This sculpture was made my Mrs. Mary Gillick who created a model that had a relief that was too high. The centre portion of the effigy was to feature two lines at the shoulder, and these were supposed to have represented the queen’s gown. However, these lines did not appear well which is why the Canadian silver dollar was termed the ‘No Shoulder Strap’ by collectors.

Later on in 1953, the chief engraver of the Royal Canadian Mint, Thomas Shingles, lowered the relief of the model by straightening the shoulder and hair details. This is the modified obverse which came to be known as the Shoulder Strap variety – hence the two varieties of the coin in 1953.

It is a noble ambition… Well, at least it’s a worthy try to save some money. Paper bucks don’t cost much to make either, but they only last about six months on average .

The buck coin has never been incredibly popular with the public. Back in 1794, when the 1st US dollar coin was introduced, a buck was a lot of cash. That was fine. The fledgling US mint was initially a jury rigged establishment unknown for its potency. Mintages were low.
And besides, the Spanish silver’piece of eight’ was way more abundant. The US Congress stated the new American buck coin be made to a design similar to that of the Spanish coin, which it also allowed to circulate as legal tender till 1857.
by the point the mint had developed into a more significant institution, with adequate capability to produce coins of top quality in sufficient quantity, the requirement for the still big silver dollar was threatened, first by the Civil War, in which coins of every size were hoarded by the citizenry, and then, as an outgrowth of the wartime coin deficit, the growing approval of paper money. Paper dollars were more acceptable, especially in the populous Eastern states.

Now, it’s interesting to understand, that although the public, except at the gaming tables in Nevada, has never been fond of the’silver cartwheels’ — the governing body has rarely let that stand in the way of dollar coin production.

And so they were — by the millions. But they did not circulate, at least not in the quantities being produced. Almost all of the silver bucks of that age were put into canvas bags and stored in bank vaults. Read the rest of this entry »