Author Description

The 59th edition of the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins was released at the Canadian Numismatic Association convention in Toronto, July 2004. This 520-page reference book is the largest Canadian coin catalogue ever published. Divided into three sections the guide covers all segments of circulating legal tender coins and their derivatives, the non-circulating legal tender coins issued by the Royal Canadian Mint and, of course, Part Two of the Charlton-Zoell Variety Catalogue. The first section, which deals with the currency coins and their numismatic counterparts has been updated with the addition of all 2003 and 2004 releases. The portrait change of 2003 is now in place, and the 2004 listings will carry forward with the mature portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Mintage numbers and prices are updated to reflect the current market values. To help emphasise the rarity of some of our early Victorian coinage a footnote has been added below the pricing table where a dash appears in the pricing columns. This notes the highest graded coin by a grading service and establishes a rule that if a coin has not been graded, then it should not be priced. Nearly twenty years after third party grading began we believe it is reasonably safe to assume that if one of the three major grading services has not graded a particular coin, then is probably does not exist in that grade. The Royal Canadian Mint section, which grew by 15% in page count, has been expanded even further with the inclusion of the new joint venture products created by the Royal Canadian Mint and Canada Post. The non-circulating legal tender issues now consume 41% of the coin listings. Part Two of the Variety Section has over 80 pages, and is just the beginning of a classification system that hopefully will accommodate a numbering system that allows for the tracking of Canadian Varieties as they pass through the grading services in North America. A new major variety was discovered in 2004. A