Early Issues of the Sherritt Mint.

    On October 21, 1981, the Sherritt Mint officially opened its new plant at Fort Saskatchewan for the production of nickel-bonded steel coins. In attendance were 75 representatives from 23 countries. Tours of the plant were given as well as seminars on the production of the coins by the Sherritt process.

Delegates and personnel at the opening of the Sherritt plant, 1981. Lt. To rt.: Philip Ajlouni (Syria); J.N. Plumail (France); Dennis Maschmeyer (Mgr. Engineering, Sherritt); Vello Mijal (Can. Commercial Corp., Ottawa); Chebbane Chebbane (Tunisia); M. Reillac (France); Ken Reid (Research, Sherritt); Edwin Eggina (Sherritt Rep.)

 

    Because they are much cheaper to produce, nickel-clad coins appeared as currencies in foreign countries well before they were used in Canada . Here, they first appeared on regular currency coins only in 2001on the 5-through-50¢ denominations. In the following year, some of the cents bore a P (for “Plated”) but they really have a thin copper wash over a nickel-clad steel core as well. The “Loonies” and “Twoonies” remain unchanged: they continue to be “nickel electroplated with bronze” and “nickel enclosing a bronze center” respectively.

    At the opening in 1981, the below listing was released of the coin issues already struck by the Sherritt Mint back to 1976. It must be frustrating for mints to discover that they are frequently not acknowledged as the original manufacturer – and for various reasons, the figures released in the mint reports of the various countries frequently do not jibe with the numbers originally struck. Of the issues listed below, only two are acknowledged by the Krause Catalogue of World Coins to have been Sherritt issues – and only two have the mintage figures of Krause and Sherritt agree. Therefore the comments that usually follow each of the listings. In chronological order, they are:

 

1976

EL SALVADOR. 5 centavos, 1976. Nickel-clad steel. Krause and Sherritt both agree on mintage of 15,000,000. Sherritt listed as mint.

 

1978.

COLOMBIA. 20 centavos, 1978. Krause catalogue gives mintage of 10,630,000 but no word as to the manufacturing mint. See comments after Colombia 50-centavos, 1979.

 

1979.

COLOMBIA. 50 centavos, 1979. A 12-sided nickel-clad steel coin, it was the same size and weight as the 20-centavo of the year previously. For the 50-centavo, there were two issues that year, determined by the size of the reverse numerals. Krause gives a mintage figure of the 50-centavo with the usual, smaller figures as 22,584,000 and with larger reverse figures as  “ – “. Sherritt gives a total mintage of both their Colombian issues of 1978/9 as an aggregate 55,500,000. Krause does not acknowledge Sherritt as the mint in either case.

    To add to the confusion, there was a 1979 issue of 20-centavos with smaller reverse lettering as well (Krause: 16,655,000 struck).

 

COSTA RICA. 10 centimos, 1979. Sherritt: 20,000,000 mintage; Krause: 10,000,000. Sherritt not noted as the mint.

 

1980.

ECUADOR. 20 centavos, 1980. Sherritt: 37,500,000; Krause: 18,000,000 Sherritt not noted as the mint.

 

COSTA RICA. 25 centimos, 1980. Sherritt: 30,000,000; Krause: 30,000,000 Sherritt not noted as the mint.

 
    In addition to the last, Sherritt notes that they struck a further 20,000,000 nickel-clad 10-centimos pieces in 1980 for Costa Rica. This date is not listed in Krause. Perhaps these were "frozen-date" 1979s even though their mintage is given as only 10-million.

 

1981.

    ECUADOR. The Sherritt listing gives a mintage of 30,000,000 pieces in the form of 20-centavos pieces for this country in 1981. The Krause catalogue lists this year/denomination with a mintage of 21,000,000 with no mention of the Sherritt Mint being that in question. In appearance, it was the same as that of 1980.

NICARAGUA. 25 centavos, 1981. Sherritt: 10,000,000 pieces. Krause acknowledges Sherritt as the mint, agrees with the mintage figure.

 
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    This brings the listing up until the time of the opening of the new facility in late 1981. Since that time, of course, there have been numerous other issues even though the Sherritt Mint is seldom listed as the manufacturer and their mintage figures as to the number supplied may or may not agree with the mintage reports of the countries in question.

 

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.