I bought a Canadian Centennial mint set without the gold about 17 years ago for $15 US. Was this set sold in this nice black case without the gold or were they removed and sold for a lesser price by The Royal Canadian Mint? When I bought it the coin shop had "no gold" on the bill of sale. The only thing I wasn't impressed with was the silver dollar looks "cloudy", maybe from rubbing against the padding in the cases lid.--John
I am not an expert in Canadian proof sets but I think the gold was NOT removed at the mint, someone removed the gold coin and sold the rest for a low price, a complete set will cost you more than 900$, same set minus the gold coin will be around 60$. This is a common practice ,you can also see it in some south african and english sets.
In 1967 it was not legal to bring the Canadian $20 gold coin from that set into the USA. I've seen dozens of those sets without the gold. Usually the silver coins are toned a dark blue. Hazing is also not uncommon. I love the 1967 centenial set - the designs are excellent.
Gold ownership was banned by FDR back in the 1930s until Nixon allowed it in the 1970s. During that period Americans were not allowed to own gold coins dated after 1933.
I read on this forum that gold coins where pulled from the market, I did not know that it was a general ban on all gold coins, thanks for the info :yes:.
My mistake, it was Ford, not Nixon who signed the act. In any event, what FDR did was probably illegal and amounted to outright theft of the people's gold. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
Wow, now I can understand why it is so difficult to change US coinage and banknotes, changing the gold law took more than 40 years!
There are still many with the gold coin intact, but maybe not in the US. When gold peaked (or seemed to peak) a few years ago, many sold the gold coin as scrap, the same way that many of the silver ones went into the pot from general circulation or Maple Leafs. The material (felt-like) that they used for the interior of those sets toned the coins strangely, some a nice blue-violet, but others hazy and cloudy, depending upon the amount of moisture in the storage space where they are kept. Most collectors remove the coins to preserve them and either keep or throw-away the case for final sale. There are other years that the RCM used weird materials for proof or proof-like sets that toned coins unnaturally.
The set that you show is a Canadian version of the 1967 set. It has a place for the $20 gold piece. It was, as mentioned by coingeezer, illegal to own the gold coin here. The Canadian version of the set came with the $20 gold coin but most have been removed from the sets. I say Canadian version because there is an American version of this set specifically made to be shipped into the US. It came in a red box (rather than the Canadian black box version) and had no place for the $20 gold piece.
Does that explain as well the wild colors seen on the 1971/72 Canadian PL silver dollars? How were they packaged? Those things are OUTRAGEOUS!
I don't know if the set you refer to was made for the American market. It did have a silver medal in place of the $20 gold coin. Sets with the gold still turn up on eBay all the time. Usually the premium over spot is pretty low too.
Is there any way to get rid of the cloudiness? It had a nice mirror finish but looks awful as is. Also the edge of the Goose dollar has some green corrosion. ---John
