1891 Canadian Dime

Quick answers

Is the 1891 Canadian Dime rare?

It is scarcer than most Canadian dimes. Collectors pay a small premium for good examples.

How many 1891 Canadian dimes were made?

800,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1891 Canadian Dime made of?

Sterling silver (92.5% silver). It weighs 2.33 g and measures 18.03 mm.

Is the 1891 Canadian Dime still legal tender?

Yes. Canadian dimes are legal tender, but a silver one is worth more for its metal than its face value.

How to recognize it

The 1891 Canadian Dime is round, 18.03 mm across and sterling silver (92.5% silver).

1891 Canadian Dime by the numbers

By the numbers, the 1891 Canadian Dime ranks 24th lowest of 157 Canadian dime dates and varieties from 1858 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1886 Canadian Dime (800,000); the next more common is the 1881 H Canadian Dime (950,000).

For scale, the most common is the 2008 Canadian Dime with 467.5 million, about 584 times as many. The scarcest is the 1884 Canadian Dime with 150,000, 5.3 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1891 output was 1.8 times the 1890 figure and 1.5 times the 1892 figure.

Over the 1890s the Mint produced 5.34 million dimes across 8 dates and varieties; the 1891 Canadian Dime accounts for 15% of that.

What to check on your 1891 Canadian Dime

• Check the date first: silver Canadian dimes carry dates from 1858 to 1968; this one has 0.0693 troy oz. Silver coins are not magnetic and ring clearly when dropped on a hard surface.
• Never clean it. Rubbing or polishing leaves fine scratches that collectors spot at once and that cut the value of silver dates sharply.
• Look at the high points of the portrait and the design. Wear there sets the grade. The grade in turn drives the value of older dimes.

Queen Victoria silver dimes (1858 to 1901)

Canada's ten cent piece began in 1858, when the Province of Canada, today's Ontario and Quebec, switched its accounts to dollars and cents and ordered its first decimal coins from the Royal Mint in London. That single 1858 issue had to last until after Confederation. Through the 1860s Canadians paid with American silver that circulated at a discount, so the new Dominion exported much of it and ordered silver of its own, starting with 1870. Canada still had no mint. London struck most years and the private Heaton mint in Birmingham filled several orders, adding a small H. Orders followed demand, so there are no dimes dated 1873, 1876 to 1879, 1895 or 1897.

Every coin of the reign is sterling silver, about 2.33 g and 18 mm with a reeded edge, holding a little under 0.07 troy oz of pure silver. The 1858 shows a young Victoria with a laurel wreath in her hair, while from 1870 she wears a diadem; both read VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA CANADA. The reverse has 10 CENTS and the date inside a wreath of maple leaves with a crown on top. Mintages ran from 150,000 in 1884 to 1,870,000 for 1871-H. The source also lists small die varieties in 1870, 1886, 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1899.

The famous key is 1889, where only an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 of the reported 600,000 are thought to carry that date. The 1884, 1883-H, 1887, 1885 and 1890-H are also hard to find in decent condition. Read the date with a magnifier and look for the H, because 1871 exists both with and without it. Most survivors are heavily worn, often holed or bent, so any detail left in the hair and leaves lifts a coin above the crowd. Be wary of altered dates on the key years.

Mintage chart

Specifications