Along with my usual Timmy's, tot my hands on a new Canadian quarter with a red poppy in the middle - supposedly the world's first coloured coin? Went to the Mint site - www.mint.ca/poppy/default.asp pretty impressive.
The actual claim is that it is the world's first colored circulation coin, which it may well be. However in 2003 the Japanese Mint Bureau issued it's Asian Games commemorative with one side colored. I don't know if it's the first ever, but it beat the RCM by a mile.
Canada has been colourizing quarters since 2000 (Pride quarter with the large mapleleaf coloured), but none have been "for circulation".
The coin has been given out at tim hortons from what i have seen and many veterans are not pleased with the coin. For one the coloured section rubs off easily and even the colour isnt in the boarder of the design. Anyways not that impressive of a coin and think they could have done better.
I was in Calgary last week and on our way to dinner, we stopped at a Tim Horton's in a gas station and the lad gave us four new Remembrance coins ("quarters" we called them, using the American word) for one dollar. The colourization was already off some on all of them. When we got to dinner, I showed them to the other guests, all of them numismatists. They accepted the red poppy with a nod and then took to criticizing the queen's portrait. Also, she is not wearing a crown, and there was no agreement on what that means.
You think the poppy coin is bad, you should see the new colorized Santa quarter Canada is minting!!!! Fortunately, it isn't a circulation piece, so hopefully not too many children will be traumatized.
Quite a few countries,especially Zambia & Namibia (which are both British Commonwealth countries) have had coloured coins.The Zambian coins are of 1,000 & 4,000 Kwacha denominations.They are also oval,& interestingly,have Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the coins' reverses.The Namibian coins show animals,& are of $1 & $10 denominations.If you have got your Krause,please do look them up.
From what I have read about these Poppy quarters, apparently the colouring wears off as they become more cicrulated. Now I am not sure how these coins would be graded. Would a MS65 Poppy still be MS65 if the colour is worn off? David
I imagine if there was enough wear to take the colour off it would no longer be MS anything. It could have an effect on lower grades though.
