Silver Dollar Varieties of 1948.

(Charlton® indicates illustrations from "The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins" [in this case 60th edition]. Used by permission)

1948 was a rather unusual year for Canadian coinage since the government determined that it would immediately reflect the change in the King's titles in keeping with the recent independence of India . No longer "Emperor of India", George VI henceforth would have the legend "ET IND. IMP." dropped. At the time, Canada was not equipped to manufacture the new obverse master dies and had to order them from the Royal Mint, London . Although ordered in good time, they were not received until late 1948, presumably because Britain was busily withdrawing her silver coinage and replacing it with copper-nickel. The effect on Canadian coinage was that the old obverse continued to be used well into 1948, the date itself appearing as a 1947 followed by a small maple leaf to designate "1948". With the arrival of the new dies, subsequent coinage for the year was dated 1948.

The Mint Report for 1948 shows that a total of 39,915 silver dollars were struck, consisting of 21,135 with the 1947-Maple leaf and 18,780 with the 1948 date. To strike all of them, a total of 6 reverse dies were used for an average of 6653 coins per die.

At this time, the reverse dies for the silver dollar were being replicated without the last two digits (or possibly all four) of the date. These were being punched in on the individual working dies as needed. Considering the limited mintages of the silver dollars at this time and the few reverse dies required, it would have been wasteful to replicate through some 15 or so identical fully-dated dies when only a few were needed. Of course, that many replicated dies would not have been made but the potential would have been equally lost. Therefore, since 6 different reverse dies were used in 1948, there should exist an equal number of varieties, determined by the slightly different placement of the date figures. In fact, we can detect two each so far for the 1947-Maple leaf and 1948 so there are two more yet to come - probably (but not necessarily) one for each. The obverse dies were something else again; there being no change from year to year, full replication could be carried out and the excess dies carried forward for use in the next year.

 

 

The 1947-Maple leaf Dollars.

The dollars of 1947 were struck using both a "pointed 7" as well as a "blunt 7" as the last digit in their date. We can assume that the "blunt 7" was used last since only it appeared on the 1947- Maple leaf coins of the following year.

 

There is only one obverse variety so far known for the 1947-Maple leaf: one on which the designer's initials, H.P. is markedly doubled to the upper right. While doubling, tripling and even quadrupling of the same initials are known on 1947-plain obverses, none have exactly the same configuration. So, therefore, one of the obverse dies - of the 9 recorded as having been used for the 1947-Maple leaf and 1948 combined - had this feature. Market value for it is not much higher than for an ordinary "plain" and this could be expected since something like a quarter or fifth of the '47- Maple leaf dollars would statistically display it.

 

Illustrations Charlton©

The Charlton catalogue illustrates the two examples above in different sections of their 2006 edition. That on the left is shown in the regular section as a blowup of the date while that to the right is in the Variety section as illustrating a JOP counterstamp. However, it will be seen that the configuration of the two dates - while fairly close - are not the same. That on the left has: (1) the top of the 1 and 9 level whereas on the other, the 9 is higher; (2) it has the bar of the 4 pointing at the 9 juncture while the other has it higher; (3) the top of the 7 points slightly above the top of the 4 whereas on the other the 7 is tilted to the left and points below it. The maple leaf itself doesn't appear to be much different although perhaps a hair higher on the right illustration.

Statistically, there should be one other. But from the above it's evident that at least 3 and perhaps all of the date figures were applied to the working die by hand. In addition, since 9 Obverse dies were combined with only 6 Reverse dies to strike all the dollars in 1948, it's evident that a certain amount of muling took place and that it is highly likely that the double-HP obverse may exist combined with more than one reverse variety.

We may even have a clue as to which was struck first. The coin illustrated below has sold several times over the past few decades and is notable in that it originated with the collection of Thomas Shingles, the Chief Engraver at the Royal Canadian Mint during the period of roughly 1939-63. It is a Specimen 1947-Maple leaf dollar and accompanied by a note stating that this coin was "the first strike from the die".

 

Lt: Rev. of the Shingles specimen 1947-ML dollar. Rt: Closeup of date.

The obverse would appear to be of the ordinary non-doubled HP.

The following information is third-hand but originated with a collector who happened to also be an employee of the RCM at the time. So far as he could determine, Specimen Sets slated for presentation to various VIPs were always made up in the first days of the new year and, under ordinary circumstances, usually numbered about 35 in the late 1940s. National celebrations or upcoming Royal Visits could alter this number. But there seems no reason that this particular set of dollar dies, once having struck the few Specimen sets would not be carried on later to strike the first of those slated for circulation; to do otherwise would be wasteful. In addition was the timing of the circulation strikes. The same informant noted that under ordinary circumstances, Canadian circulation coin was struck two denominations at a time. Usually, the first two were the cents and 25-cent pieces, struck in quantities sufficient to meet current and much of the expected need for the present year. A couple of weeks later, it was the turn of the 5- and 10-cent pieces; last of all was the 50-cent and dollar coins. After this, subsequent striking were entirely determined by demand made by the banks through the various regional agencies of the Bank of Canada as well as replenishing stocks that became low. So far as possible, the RCM tried to cease making new dies for the current year by about October 1st so that the Die Room might concentrate on manufacturing the hundreds of dies needed for the upcoming year. Sometimes this intention was thrown into a cocked hat when demand for coin at Christmas exceeded expectations or , in the case of the 1948-dated coins, when master dies were very late in showing up.

1948 Dollars.

The 1948 dollars have always had good press, right from the get-go. Eagerly anticipated at the time by collectors - and a lot of others who were simply "in the know" - they were already expected to be "rare". When they did start to show up in banks in late 1948, practically all were snapped up and those unable to obtain one (or more) at face readily paid $5 and $6 to dealers; for a couple of dollars more, you could buy "brilliant gem uncirculated" selected from mint-sealed bags. Chances are excellent that practically all of the 18,780 dollars dated 1948 are still in existence - and that very few will grade below an AU. In the words of Bob Willey in discussing some Canadian tokens, "They aren't rare; just high-priced".

By contrast, the 1947-ML was a "poor cousin", largely overlooked for some time and tending to be lumped in with the "common" 1945s, '46s and '47-plains. Actually, the 1948 dollar is "rarer" than the 1947-ML by only some 12% - certainly nothing to justify the fact that the 1948s have a market value of 4 times the 1947-MLs. In addition, a larger proportion of the 1947MLs could well have since disappeared, simply because they have been ignored and those that remain, on average, of slightly lesser condition. If we could somehow magically know , chances are good that there actually exist fewer 1947MLs today than 1948s. But market and demand dictates all.

 

Varieties of 1948 dollars as per Charlton©, 2006 edition.

 

With a mintage only slightly larger than the 1947ML, the 6 Reverse dies used for the entire year 1948 may or may not be equally divided between the 1947ML and 1948. As shown above, there certainly are two varieties of the 1948 as determined by date placement - and there could well be another.

Of course if a coin with a present collector's value of about $1,600 in ordinary MS-60 gets divided three ways, well ........

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.