1963 Canadian Quarter

Quick answers

Is the 1963 Canadian Quarter rare?

Not by mintage. 21.2 million were made, but it is silver, so even worn examples are worth their metal value rather than face value.

How many 1963 Canadian quarters were made?

21,180,652 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1963 Canadian Quarter made of?

80% silver, 20% copper. It weighs 5.83 g and measures 23.88 mm.

Is the 1963 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 1963 Canadian Quarter is round, 23.88 mm across and 80% silver, 20% copper.

1963 Canadian Quarter by the numbers

By the numbers, the 1963 Canadian Quarter ranks 86th lowest of 147 Canadian quarter dates and varieties from 1870 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1961 Canadian Quarter (18.2 million); the next more common is the 1960 Canadian Quarter (22.8 million).

For scale, the most common is the 2000 Canadian Quarter with 434.1 million, about 20 times as many. The scarcest is the 1889 Canadian Quarter with 66,324, 319 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1963 output was 1.4 times fewer than 1962 and 1.7 times fewer than 1964.

Over the 1960s the Mint produced 540.6 million quarters across 11 dates and varieties; the 1963 Canadian Quarter accounts for 3.9% of that.

What to check on your 1963 Canadian Quarter

• Check the date first: silver Canadian quarters carry dates from 1870 to 1968; this one has 0.15 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.

Elizabeth II silver quarters, 1953 to 1966

Elizabeth II first appears on Canadian quarters dated 1953, the year of her coronation. Mary Gillick's portrait shows the young queen with a laurel wreath in her hair and no crown, inside the legend ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA. Hahn's caribou stayed on the reverse. The early dies struck poorly, so the portrait was revised during 1953 with a fold line added to the gown at the shoulder. Collectors split that year into no shoulder fold and shoulder fold coins, though one mintage covers both.

Canada's postwar boom shows in the figures. After a dip to 2,318,891 in 1954, mintages climbed past 10 million and then past 20 million, reaching 44,708,869 in 1965. That year Arnold Machin's portrait replaced Gillick's. It shows the queen wearing a tiara and the legend shortened to ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA. Through the whole period the quarter remained 80 percent silver at 5.83 g, so each coin holds about 0.15 troy ounces of pure silver.

Silver quarters disappeared from change quickly once nickel coins arrived in 1968, because people pulled them aside as silver prices rose. They still turn up in jars and inherited collections. A quick test: a silver quarter does not stick to a magnet, while the later nickel and plated steel ones do. The 1954 is the scarce date of the group and the 1953 varieties draw specialist interest. Most other dates are common, but every one is worth more than face value for its silver.

Mintage chart

Specifications