50 Cents gets you?

June 7, 2011 1:09 PM

Do circulated Canadian non-silver half dollars have any numismatic value?

I bought at auction a binder filled with loonies, toonies, and half-dollars (all after 1968 and thus no silver content). Someone was obviously collecting them, but do they have any value over their face value? Should I just take them out of the binder and spend them, or would someone pay more than that for them? They are NOT in any 'mint' condition that I can see. Some have certain themes on them like Nunavut or Terry fox etc. Might the 50cent pieces have value someday if I hung on long enough?

posted by kevinsp8 to Shopping (3 answers total)

I have a coin collection myself, and if you get a coin guide or google search you'll come up with more information about the value of individual Canadian 50-cent piece.

The general feedback on the 50 cent piece is that some people think of them as collectable because they are an unpopular unit of currency that one rarely enounters. Truth of the matter though is the coins aren't really that rare, and you can usually ask for them at a bank if you want them. Probably for that reason, the Canadian 50 cent piece isn't especially favoured by collectors - this isn't to say that there aren't some collectable 50 cent pieces, it's just that most of them are not.
posted by Intrepid at 1:48 PM on June 7, 2011

Unless it's a very specific and rare half-dollar coin, they're typically worth no more than their face value. I recall a friend in junior high who liked to "scam" vending machines by spending half-dollar coins (apparently, they were treated as loonies by most machines; some machines simply rejected them, but most of the time he'd get his snacks for half price).

It may be worthwhile to spend them. Just make sure that the cashier knows what you're handing over or you may end up overpaying for things (or underpaying, depending).
posted by asnider at 3:33 PM on June 7, 2011

You should be able to find a book at a decent library that will give you an idea of how to judge the condition of these coins as well as their values (though of course the actual value of anything is what you can manage to sell it for, but they will at least provide a ballpark). Most modern coins have been produced in massive numbers and so unlikely to have numismatic value; even coins that are rarely seen in circulation often have no particularly strong value (you will almost never see an American pre-1958 "wheat" penny in circulation any more, for example, but most are not worth more than a few cents). But there are exceptions and you won't know unless you check them.

But there are rarities even among very recent coins with significant values.

I don't know anything about Canadian coins but a quick perusal suggests this site might at least give you a feel for the market. Some of the modern 50c coins do have real value so it might be worth the time of some research.
posted by nanojath at 10:49 PM on June 7, 2011