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50-cent 1921 PCGS SP64. The King of Canadian Decimal Coins! Exceptionally Rare & Seldom Encountered

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - Canada Start Price:133,500.00 CAD Estimated At:180,000.00 CAD and UP
50-cent 1921 PCGS SP64. The King of Canadian Decimal Coins! Exceptionally Rare & Seldom Encountered
We are accepting Internet Bids, E-mail, Phone or Faxed Bids. Session 1 goes live September 8th @ 5:30pm EST (2:30pm PT), Session 2 goes live September 9th @ 5:30pm EST (2:30pm PT)

Tel: 519-579-9302 (Ext. 221 or 212 after hours)
Fax: 519-579-0532
Email: auctions@colonialacres.com

Live floor bidding held at 6750 Mississauga Rd, Mississauga, ON.

Viewing will be available Friday, September 8th, from 12-4 PM and again Saturday, September 9th, from 10 AM to 4 PM.

Please read the updated terms.
50-cent 1921 PCGS SP64. The King of Canadian Decimal Coins! An Exceptionally Rare and Seldom Encountered Treasure.

The King of Canadian Coins

Hundreds of thousands of Canada’s 1921 50-cent pieces were cast into the fire, rendered into liquid silver, and restruck to bear the date 1929. 1929 – the year the world’s fortunes fell into depression; 1929 – the year a numismatic legend arose from the crucible.

Few desired any of the 206,398 1921 50-cents when they were first struck. They lay idle in the Mint’s coffers till 1929, when the foliated silver piece came again into demand. John Honeyford Campbell, Master of the Mint in Ottawa, feared the early ’20s coins would be taken for counterfeits if issued now. He ordered them melted. Coin by coin, over 200,000 1921 50-cents fell into the furnace, emerged as elemental silver and copper, were recast and restruck.

But a few survived. Collectors and Mint visitors had already purchased some 75 of the coins, in specimen sets or as souvenirs. These scant survivors of the fire James Charlton would collectively christen “the king of Canadian coins.”

Colonial Acres presents to the public a vanishing rarity: one of but six specimen-grade examples of the 1921 50-cent piece known to exist. PCGS certified as a Specimen 64, the coin is garbed in a fitting sombre grey patina with undertones of regal purple. The other known Specimen 64 sold this spring for $155,350. Of the two, this is the nicer. One of the highest heirlooms of the Canadian numismatic world, this coin will be the crown jewel in any array of rare Canadian coins.