Canadian silver coin melt calculator

How the coin melt calculator works

Melt value is what the silver inside a coin is worth at the spot price. Date, design and condition do not count. The sum has three steps.

1. The coin's standard weight times its silver content gives the grams of pure silver inside.
2. Grams divided by 31.1035 give troy ounces. Spot prices are quoted per troy ounce.
3. Troy ounces times the spot price, times the number of coins, give the melt value in Canadian dollars.

The silver price box fills itself with the latest indicative spot price from Gold API, in Canadian dollars, with the time it was quoted. You can type over it. With no live price, the box stays empty and the calculator asks for one: it never makes up a number.

Use it as a quick Canadian coin value checker for metal content: sort your coins by face value, read the dates, and count them into the matching boxes.

Which Canadian coins are silver

Canada's 5, 10, 25 and 50 cent coins and its dollars were struck in silver for decades. Three silver contents were used: 92.5% (sterling) until 1919, 80% from 1920, and 50% for some dimes and quarters in 1967 and 1968. The table below is our own summary of the Royal Canadian Mint's coin specifications. The Mint's pages are linked in the sources.

Years that appear in two rows were struck both ways: 1910 (10 cents and 25 cents), 1967 (10 cents and 25 cents) and 1968 (10 cents and 25 cents). * Not on the Mint's coin page: set by the 1967 to 1968 coinage law, and listed by coin references. Silver per coin is the standard weight times the silver content, for a new coin. The first nickel coins are shown for comparison. On a phone, turn it sideways to see the weight and troy ounce columns.

Coins from before 1908 are left out. Their standard weights differ slightly, and they are usually worth far more to collectors than their melt value.

1967 and 1968 coins: which kind do you have?

In 1967, dimes and quarters were struck in 80% silver and then in 50% silver. Both kinds had the same standard weight: 5.83 g for a quarter and 2.33 g for a dime. A scale cannot tell them apart.

In 1968, dimes and quarters were struck in 50% silver and in nickel. Here weight helps. A new nickel quarter weighs 5.05 g, 0.78 g less than a silver one. A new nickel dime weighs 2.07 g against 2.33 g. You need an accurate scale, and wear takes weight off too. Numista and Numismatic News (coin references, not the Mint) also say that a magnet attracts the nickel coins and not the silver ones.

The Mint's coin page does not list a 50% silver dime. The 1967 to 1968 coinage law set one, and coin references list it.

If you are not sure which kind you have, leave the choice on "Not sure": the calculator shows a low and a high value instead of one number.

A worked example: 40 silver quarters

Take 40 quarters dated 1920 to 1966. We use an example silver price of C$70.00 a troy ounce. That is a round number for illustration, not today's price.

• Each coin weighs 5.83 g and is 80% silver, so it holds 4.664 g of pure silver.
• 40 coins hold 186.56 g, which is 5.998 troy ounces.
• At C$70.00 an ounce, the melt value is C$419.86.

Counting a jar of coins by face value

The 80% silver coins were made in step with their face value. Canada's coinage law (Revised Statutes of Canada 1952) set 360 grains of 80% silver alloy for each dollar of face value, whether as dimes, quarters, 50 cent coins or a dollar. The Mint's rounded weights give 18.64 to 18.656 g of silver per dollar, so the face value box shows a narrow range.

Use it only for the 80% years listed under the box: leave out 1967 dimes and quarters, which may be 50% silver, and anything from 1968 on.

Melt value is not what a buyer will pay

Melt value is not collector value. A rare date or a coin in fine condition can be worth far more to a collector than the silver in it. Dealers buy circulated silver coins below melt value, so an offer will be lower than the number here. Worn coins also weigh less and hold a little less silver.

Melt value is a reference figure, not advice to melt coins. Canada's Currency Act forbids melting coins that are current and legal tender without a licence from the Minister.

Our guide to where to buy gold in Canada compares the Mint, banks, dealers and online sellers.

Maple Leaf bullion coins

Tick the bullion box to add Royal Canadian Mint Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium Maple Leafs. They are valued at the metal content the Mint states: a 1 oz Silver Maple Leaf holds 1 troy ounce of silver. The Mint also lists a rounded weight, 31.11 g for a 1 oz coin, which the calculator does not use. Type a palladium price yourself: the live feed has none.

What this calculator leaves out

• Collector value, rare dates, varieties and condition.
• Dealer spreads, fees, shipping and taxes.
• Commemorative and collector coins sold by the Mint, other than the bullion coins listed.