Canada 50 cents - Elizabeth II 1963

The coin's story

This 50 cents coin in 800 thousandths silver belongs to the series struck from 1959 to 1964 in the name of Queen Elizabeth II. The reverse bears the arms of Canada, proclaimed by King George V on 21 November 1921 and redrawn in 1957, with an attempt to render the heraldic colours in relief, the plain field representing blue. In 1959, an error made the lower part of the shield appear “blue” when it should have been white, it was corrected in 1960. The reverse was designed by Thomas Shingles, who signs T S, and the laurel-wreathed portrait of the Queen by Mary Gillick. The 1963 date, with the “white” shield, was struck at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa in 8,348,871 pieces.