Hey everyone I've had this thing for a while now and I'm finally putting it out there to see if its real, and if so what it may be worth. Its a 1987 Silver loonie. I've compared it to a regular 1988 loonie and they look identical other than the obvious colour difference. I had read in another thread that 'There are no silver loonies minted in 1987.' Can anyone shed any light on this coin for me?? I've been trying to get a pic of it but i can't get a good one cuz its so darn shiny. Thanks in advance.
Its been a while since I checked the post, I've worked in a bank for the past 6 years, since then I've asked anyone to forward one to me if they have one. Since my last post in 2009 I have not found or heard of a single person that has one nor can I find any website or coin book that refers to it. If it is real, it is certainly not worth face value. Does anyone else have an opinion or perhaps a link that could lead me to some info on this coin? Thanks
Hello, i wish i was able to help you more but i myself cannot find anything on this coin my wife and i have a 1987 silver colored loonie as well and its the same story as yours no one has ever seen one before and there is nothing online... i will keep searching and please let me know if you find anything more about it as well.
I would check the weight. Promotional companies have does stuff like silver and nickel plating common coins for years and then selling them as "collectible" coins. On anything like this, I always assume it was done by a place like HSN and is in reality post mint damage. The weight will usually be telling, and they are usually very close to official weight since the coating usually was extremely thin, (to save money). If anyone ever has an item like this and the weight is substantially different than official weights, please post a pic. Until you weigh it, though, I am afraid most everyone on CT will assume its just a PMD plated coin, as we have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of them.
I have just weighed it on my jewlers scale it only weighs 6.35 grams verses a regular loonie which weighed in at 7.03 grams i will try to post some pictures now.
Krause says Loonies are "aureate bronze plated nickel." The coins pictured here look more like nickel than silver. You can check that with a magnet. Nickel, depending on the alloy, should stick to a magnet. Silver will not. Assuming it is nickel, you either have a mint error, missing bronze plate, or you have post mint damage, removed bronze plate. In either case, the weight would be slightly less than the regulation weight. I am not an expert, but to me joshgiles's coin looks more like missing plating while ben johnson's coin, because it is so much rougher, looks more like a removed plating.
