1903 Canadian Quarter

Quick answers

Is the 1903 Canadian Quarter rare?

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

How many 1903 Canadian quarters were made?

846,150 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1903 Canadian Quarter made of?

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

Is the 1903 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 1903 Canadian Quarter is round, 23.62 mm across and sterling silver (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper).

1903 Canadian Quarter by the numbers

By the numbers, the 1903 Canadian Quarter ranks 33rd lowest of 147 Canadian quarter dates and varieties from 1870 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1881 H Canadian Quarter (820,000); the next more common is the 1870 Canadian Quarter (900,000).

For scale, the most common is the 2000 Canadian Quarter with 434.1 million, about 513 times as many. The scarcest is the 1889 Canadian Quarter with 66,324, 13 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1903 output was about the same as 1902 and 2.1 times the 1904 figure.

Over the 1900s the Mint produced 10.4 million quarters across 11 dates and varieties; the 1903 Canadian Quarter accounts for 8.1% of that.

What to check on your 1903 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.

Edward VII quarters, 1902 to 1910

Victoria died in January 1901 and quarters dated 1901 still carry her portrait. Edward VII appears on coins dated 1902, in a crowned and robed bust modeled by George William de Saulles, with the legend EDWARDVS VII DEI GRATIA REX IMPERATOR. The reverse kept the idea of a maple wreath and crown around 25 CENTS and the date. The metal did not change either. An Edwardian quarter is still sterling silver and holds the same 0.173 troy ounces or so of pure silver as a Victorian one.

What did change in these years was where Canada's coins came from. The Heaton mint in Birmingham struck its last quarters, marked with an H, in 1902. The Royal Mint in London supplied the rest until January 1908. That month a branch of the Royal Mint opened in Ottawa and from then on Canadian quarters were made in Canada. Mintages grew with the economy, from 400,000 in 1904 to 3,577,569 in 1910, the biggest run of the reign.

With an Edward VII quarter, the date does most of the work. The lower mintage years are 1904, 1902 and 1908, each under half a million, while 1907 and 1910 are the easiest to find. The 1902-H is the only quarter of the reign with a mint mark, so look below the wreath on any 1902. Wear shows first on the king's beard, the top of the crown and the leaf veins. Edward died in May 1910, but quarters dated 1910 still show him; George V's portrait arrives on coins dated 1911.

Mintage chart

Specifications