1881 H Canadian Quarter

Quick answers

Is the 1881 H Canadian Quarter rare?

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

How many 1881 H Canadian quarters were made?

820,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1881 H Canadian Quarter made of?

Sterling silver (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper). It weighs 5.81 g and measures 23.62 mm.

Is the 1881 H Canadian Quarter still legal tender?

Yes. Every Canadian quarter is legal tender at 25 cents, but a silver one is worth more for its metal than its face value.

How to recognize it

The 1881 H Canadian Quarter is round, 23.62 mm across and sterling silver (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper).

1881 H Canadian Quarter by the numbers

By the numbers, the 1881 H Canadian Quarter ranks 32nd lowest of 147 Canadian quarter dates and varieties from 1870 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1905 Canadian Quarter (800,000); the next more common is the 1903 Canadian Quarter (846,150).

For scale, the most common is the 2000 Canadian Quarter with 434.1 million, about 529 times as many. The scarcest is the 1889 Canadian Quarter with 66,324, 12 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1881 output was 2 times the 1880 figure and 1.4 times the 1882 figure.

Over the 1880s the Mint produced 4.08 million quarters across 9 dates and varieties; the 1881 H Canadian Quarter accounts for 20% of that.

What to check on your 1881 H Canadian Quarter

• Check the date first: silver Canadian quarters carry dates from 1870 to 1968; this one has 0.1728 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 quarters.

Victoria sterling quarters, 1870 to 1901

Canada's first 25 cent coins are dated 1870, three years after Confederation. At the time the young Dominion was awash with American silver coins that circulated at a discount, so the government pushed much of that silver out of the country and ordered silver coins of its own in 5, 10, 25 and 50 cent sizes. Canada had no mint, so the coins were struck in England. The obverse shows a crowned Queen Victoria with the legend VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA CANADA. On the reverse, 25 CENTS and the date sit inside a wreath of maple leaves with a crown at the top.

These were sterling silver, 92.5 percent pure, weighing about 5.81 g, which works out to roughly 0.173 troy ounces of pure silver per coin. The Royal Mint in London struck most years, while the private Heaton mint in Birmingham filled several orders and added a small H to the coins it made. Orders followed demand and demand was patchy. No quarters are dated 1873, 1876 to 1879, 1884 or 1895 to 1898. Published mintages swing from 2,240,000 for 1872-H down to just 66,324 for 1889.

Read the date first, then look for the H, because a few years exist both with and without it. The scarce dates of the reign are 1889, the rarest regular Victorian quarter, followed by 1887, 1893, 1891 and 1885, with the Heaton coins of 1875 and 1880 close behind. Most Victorian quarters that survive are well worn, often down to a smooth crown and a faint date, after decades in pockets and tills. Clear hair detail and readable veins in the maple leaves are what lift a coin above the crowd. On the key dates, check the last digit carefully, since a worn 6 or 8 can pass for something rarer.

Mintage chart

Specifications