1887 Canadian Nickel
The 1887 Canadian Nickel is a Canadian nickel struck for circulation with 500,000 made. Value band: small premium. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1887
- Circulation mintage
- 500,000
- Value band
- Small premium
- Composition
- Sterling silver (92.5% silver)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1887 Canadian Nickel worth?
At 500,000, the 1887 Canadian Nickel has a smaller run than most Canadian nickels, so collectors pay a small premium for it, especially in uncirculated condition. Well circulated examples sit close to face value.
What would make yours worth more:
- Sharp detail with original luster
- A recognized variety for the date
- Professional grading for a key date
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1887 Canadian Nickel rare?
- It is scarcer than most Canadian nickels. Collectors pay a small premium for good examples.
- How many 1887 Canadian nickels were made?
- 500,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1887 Canadian Nickel made of?
- Sterling silver (92.5% silver). It weighs 1.16 g and measures 15.5 mm.
- Is the 1887 Canadian Nickel still legal tender?
- Yes. Canadian 5-cent coins are legal tender, but a silver one is worth more for its metal than its face value.
The 1887 nickel in context
Only 500,000 five cents were struck in 1887, less than a third of the year before and half the year after. All were made at the Royal Mint in London and none carries a mint mark. In the Victorian series only 1884 has a lower total, which puts 1887 near the top of every collector's want list along with 1894, which also had 500,000. A shortfall like this, in the middle of a busy decade, is exactly what turns an ordinary looking coin into a key date.
There was nothing unusual about the coin itself. Canada's small silver orders were driven by what the government decided it needed each year and 1886 had already brought 1,700,000 coins. That large order seems to have left less demand for the year that followed. The result is a date that is not a famous rarity like 1884 but still turns up far less often than common Victorian years in old collections and mixed accumulations. For many collectors the 1887 is the coin that shows whether a Victorian set is serious, since it rarely turns up by chance.
How to recognize it
The coin shows Victoria crowned on the obverse, surrounded by VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA CANADA. The reverse holds 5 CENTS and the date inside a wreath of maple leaves with a crown above. Like other London dates of the decade it weighs about 1.16 g in sterling silver. One date variety is recorded: a 7 over 7, where the last digit was punched twice in slightly different spots. It shows as a doubled outline on the final 7 and needs strong magnification to see. The portrait was the crowned Victoria used since 1870, by now familiar to a whole generation of Canadians who had never seen another.
1887 Canadian Nickel by the numbers
Measured by how many were made, the 1887 Canadian Nickel ranks 3rd lowest of 161 Canadian nickel dates and varieties from 1858 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1925 Canadian Nickel (200,050); the next more common is the 1894 Canadian Nickel (500,000).
For scale, the most common is the 2008 Canadian Nickel with 278.5 million, about 557 times as many. The scarcest is the 1884 Canadian Nickel with 200,000, 2.5 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1887 output was 3.4 times fewer than 1886 and 2 times fewer than 1888.
Over the 1880s the Mint produced 11.7 million five cent coins across 10 dates and varieties; the 1887 Canadian Nickel accounts for 4.3% of that.
What to check on your 1887 Canadian Nickel
- Check the date first: silver Canadian nickels carry dates from 1858 to 1921; this one has 0.0345 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 five cent coins.
Check that the date really reads 1887, since a worn 1881 or 1888 can look similar at a glance. Then look closely at the final 7 for any doubled outline. The 7 over 7 is a prize for variety hunters. Even a well worn 1887 is a better date, so do not clean it or try to improve the surface. If you are buying, ask for clear photos of both sides and of the date at high magnification. Holed or damaged pieces are still collectible but carry much less appeal.
Queen Victoria silver five cents (1858 to 1901)
Canada's five cent piece started life as a tiny silver coin. In 1858 the Province of Canada moved its accounts from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents, so it ordered new coins from the Royal Mint in London: a bronze cent plus silver 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces. The 5 cent weighed about 1.16 g of sterling (.925) silver and was barely bigger than a fingernail. Leonard Charles Wyon engraved a young laureate Victoria for the first issue. After Confederation the Dominion placed its own orders from 1870, now with a crowned portrait of the queen.
Canada had no mint of its own, so every one of these coins came from England. London struck most years, while Ralph Heaton & Sons of Birmingham filled several orders and marked them with a small H on the reverse. The reverse barely changed in more than forty years: 5 CENTS and the date inside a wreath of maple leaves with a crown on top. Production came in bursts. Nothing was dated 1859 to 1869, 1873, 1876 to 1879 or 1895 and yearly totals swing from 200,000 to 3,000,000.
Start with the date and check for an H, since the pair identifies the issue. The low mintage years are the ones to hope for: 1884 above all, then 1887, 1894 and 1898, with 1875-H scarcer than its total suggests. These coins were easy to lose and were often holed or made into jewelry, which is part of why decent survivors are hard to find. On a worn piece the hair detail and the leaf veins go first. Collectors also hunt small date varieties, such as overdates and different sizes of numeral, recorded in the mintage notes.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 5 cents |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1887 |
| Circulation mintage | 500,000 |
| Composition | Sterling silver (92.5% silver) |
| Weight | 1.16 g |
| Diameter | 15.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Reeded |
Frequently asked questions
How scarce is the 1887 five cents?
Its mintage of 500,000 is the joint second lowest of the Victorian series, matched only by 1894 and beaten only by 1884. That makes it a coin collectors look for actively and one that sells with a clear collector premium.
What is a 7 over 7?
When the date was punched into the die, the final 7 was struck twice and the two impressions did not line up exactly. On the coin it appears as a 7 with traces of a second 7 around its edges.
Mintage figures: Nickel (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.