# 306 - Some Junk Canadian Silver

Last November I was in Toronto and, of course, I decided to visit several Coin Shops.

This story happened in one of these. It is very active on Ebay and it has a site with thousands of coins.

I went to its physical address, bought several coins and started talking to the owner, a very nice person.

During our conversation I told him that I loved Canadian junk coins and he said that he didn't advertise it, but he had them for sale.

In Canada and US they sell junk silver by total face value, instead of by weight, as in Brazil. So you pay the same value for 2 x $.50 or 4 x $.25 or 10 x $.10. It doesn't matter if the coins are almost new or very worn. Strange...

I had already spent too much money in silver, but I was compelled to ask the price. When he told me it was $11 CAD for a dollar, I almost fell from the chair.

At that time, the spot price for silver was around $19.50 CAD an ounce. A $.50 coin weights 11.66g and is 80% silver. So it is 9.33g pure silver. Buying twenty coins we have 186.6g or exactly 6oz of pure silver.

By the spot price I should have paid 6 x $19.50 = $117.00 CAD and he was selling me for $110.00 CAD. Below spot price!

I could not let this opportunity goes unpunished and was forced to buy $10 in $1 coins and $10 in $.50 coins...

As I think that the Canadian silver half dollar is the most beautiful circulating coin that I know, let me show you those I bought.

Notice that there are two different designs for this coin. The left one is from 1959 to 1966 and the one to the right is from 1937 to 1958.

I hope you have enjoyed this article.

Thank you for reading. Please comment, upvote, resteem and advise me.