1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter
The 1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter is a Canadian quarter struck for circulation with 48.9 million made. Value band: metal value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1967
- Circulation mintage
- 48,855,500
- Value band
- Metal value
- Composition
- 80% silver, 20% copper
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 a 1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter worth?
The 1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter is a silver coin with 0.15 troy ounces of pure silver, so its floor is its metal value: 0.15 times the day's silver spot price. With 48.9 million made, worn examples trade for about their silver; collectors pay more for sharp, original coins and much more for uncirculated ones with full luster.
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 1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter rare?
- Not by mintage. 48.9 million were made, but it is silver, so even worn examples are worth their metal value rather than face value.
- How many 1967 80% Silver Canadian quarters were made?
- 48,855,500 were struck for circulation (a combined figure for the 80% Silver and 50% Silver varieties).
- What is the 1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter made of?
- 80% silver, 20% copper. It weighs 5.83 g and measures 23.88 mm.
- Is the 1967 80% Silver 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.
The 1967 quarter in context
For Canada's centennial, every circulating coin dated 1967 carried a special design by the artist Alex Colville. The cent showed a rock dove, the five cents a rabbit, the ten cents a mackerel, the quarter a bobcat, the fifty cents a howling wolf and the dollar a Canada goose. The quarter's bobcat, also described as a lynx, was struck in huge numbers and many Canadians kept the coins as souvenirs of the anniversary. Canadians found the animal designs a striking change from the caribou and the other regular reverses.
Silver prices were rising fast and partway through 1967 the mint lowered the quarter's silver content from 80 percent to 50 percent. The earlier coins, in the traditional alloy, are the 80 percent version. The published mintage of 48,855,500 covers both alloys together, so the records cannot tell you how many of each exist. The 80 percent bobcat is the last Canadian quarter in the alloy that had been standard since 1920. The bobcat itself lasted just that one year, before the caribou returned in 1968.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows Colville's bobcat stretched out in mid stride, with CANADA, 25 CENTS and the dates 1867 and 1967. His style is simple and modern, with plenty of open space around the animal. The obverse has Arnold Machin's portrait of the queen wearing a tiara, with ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA. Nothing on the coin tells you which alloy it is. The 80 percent and 50 percent versions both weigh 5.83 g and measure 23.88 mm, so only a metal test separates them. This version holds about 0.15 troy ounces of pure silver. The obverse portrait is the same one used on 1965 and 1966 quarters.
1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter by the numbers
The published 48,855,500 for 1967 covers both the 80% Silver and 50% Silver varieties together, so neither can be ranked on its own. As a date, 1967 sits 96th lowest among Canadian quarter dates by output.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1967 output was 1.9 times the 1966 figure and 1.5 times fewer than 1968. Other 1967 quarters: 1967 50% Silver Canadian Quarter.
Over the 1960s the Mint produced 540.6 million quarters across 11 dates and varieties; the 1967 80% Silver Canadian Quarter accounts for 9.0% of that.
What to check on your 1967 80% Silver 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.
Because the two alloys look identical, most people simply treat any 1967 bobcat quarter as silver, which is true either way. The 80 percent coins hold more silver, so collectors who care about metal content sometimes have their coins tested with an analyzer. With a combined mintage of nearly 49 million, the bobcat is common and carries a small premium over its silver. Uncirculated coins from centennial sets are easy to find. Worn ones are still worth more than face value for silver.
Centennial and the end of silver, 1967 to 1968
For Canada's centennial in 1967 every circulating coin got a one-year design by the painter Alex Colville. The quarter shows a bobcat, also described as a lynx, striding across the field with the dates 1867 and 1967. The obverse kept Arnold Machin's portrait of the queen. Colville's set was hugely popular and people saved them in quantity, which is one reason the centennial quarter still turns up so often in old coin jars.
Behind the celebration, silver was getting too expensive to put in pocket change. Partway through 1967 the quarter dropped from 80 percent to 50 percent silver with no change in weight or appearance, which cut the pure silver to about 0.094 troy ounces. The published 1967 mintage of 48,855,500 covers both alloys together. In 1968 the caribou returned and the mint struck 71,464,000 more quarters in 50 percent silver before switching to pure nickel, with 88,686,931 nickel coins that year.
You can't tell an 80 percent 1967 from a 50 percent one by eye, since both weigh 5.83 g and look the same; separating them takes a metal test. A 1968 is easier. Hold it to a magnet: nickel sticks, silver does not. On a scale the nickel coin is lighter, at 5.07 g. Both 1967 versions and the 1968 silver quarter contain real silver, so they are worth more than face value, while a 1968 nickel quarter is an ordinary coin.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 25 cents |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1967 |
| Circulation mintage | 48,855,500 (with the 50% Silver variety) |
| Composition | 80% silver, 20% copper |
| Weight | 5.83 g |
| Diameter | 23.88 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Reeded |
Other 1967 Canadian quarters
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 50% Silver Canadian Quarter | 48,855,500 | Metal value |
Frequently asked questions
How can you tell if a 1967 quarter is 80 percent silver?
Not by looking or weighing. Both versions weigh 5.83 g and look the same. A metal analyzer or a specific gravity test is needed to separate the 80 percent coins from the 50 percent ones.
Who designed the 1967 bobcat quarter?
Alex Colville, the Canadian painter, designed all six centennial coins of 1967. The quarter's bobcat, sometimes called a lynx, appeared only that year, with the dates 1867 and 1967 marking a hundred years since Confederation.
Mintage figures: Quarter (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.