I decided to carry on with the coin theme for one more day (or maybe two depending what I have in store tomorrow). I wanted to show one one of my nicer silver coins. The first coin I put up was marketed as an affordable coin and wasn't packaged as nicely as most of my purchases. The cellophane wrapped card just doesn't scream out precious metals.
I have coins that aren't silver. Since I started collecting I have been buying an uncirculated set of the Canadian coinage for every year. The mint also puts out several special edition sets throughout the year. In the set they'll have one or more special edition coins. Sometimes they are versions of coins that are going to be circulated and sometimes they are only available in the sets. They also come out with coloured coins and glow in the dark coins that are not made of precious metals.
The second coin I posted was a coloured, glow in the dark coin. It was part of a prehistoric creatures series. The coins featured a colour image of a dinosaur and when you put the coin in the dark the dinosaur's skeleton would glow. It was a nice addition to my non-precious metal coins.
I bought the coin I'm showing today for a couple reasons. First of all, I had a credit at the mint. I can't remember why. It wasn't for a returned purchase or anything. Anyway, I got an email in December telling me that I needed to spend the credit before the new year or it was going to expire. I went on the website to see what was available and this caribou coin was there.
The caribou is featured on the Canadian quarter. I liked that about it. The price was just over what they usually would charge for one of their 1 oz. silver coins. They charge a little extra for the gold plating. The store credit covered the extra cost from the plating and it was just like I was buying any other 1 ounce silver coin.
A piedfort coin is a coin that is twice as thick as a typical coin of the same diameter. This coin is a piedfort coin. It has the 34 millimeter diameter of a typical 1/2 ounce coin but it is twice as thick bringing it to 1 ounce of fine silver.
Like most of the RCM silver coins it is 99.99% pure or four nines fine I'm told it's called. Like I mentioned earlier it was slightly more than the typically hundred dollar 1 ounce silver coin. It was $129.95 CAD and is currently still available at the mint.
This coin will make another fine addition to my collection.