Starting on February 23, 2007, Canada’s Mint will begin circulating the first of 17 commemorative coins marking the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic games. As many as 350 million Olympic themed coins will be made for circulation between now and 2010. 10 designs will show winter Olympic sports, while two coins will represent the Paralympics.

Three extra quarters will show Canadian athlete medalists that ordinary Canadians will be able to vote on in the run up to the games. Voting will begin in 2008, and these coins will have bronze, silver, or gold finishes. A pair of Lucky Loon Dollars are planned. One will come out before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while the other will emerge closer to the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics.

The Royal Canadian Mint are sponsors of the Canadian Olympic Program and are making the Olympic and Paralympic medals to be awarded at the Vancouver 2010 games. Besides circulating, the new Olympic coins will be made available through participating Royal Bank service centers and Petro Canada gas stations.

The 2007 commemorative quarters will be issued as follows: Curling, February, Ice Hockey, April, Paralympic Wheelchair Curling, July, Biathlon, September, and Alpine Skiing, October.

30,000 special edition Uncirculated coin sets of the made for circulation coins, including the Vancouver 2010 quarters and loon dollars, will be produced annually. Two Sterling Silver Colourized Olympic Lucky Loon Dollars, will be issued in 2008 and 2010, with mintages of 30,000 and 40,000 respectively. Collector cards containing the made for circulation coins are planned, including painted maple leaf versions for 2007. A Lucky Loon in a hockey puck is planned for 2009.

Previous Royal Canadian Mint Olympic issues include 28 $5 and $10 silver coins for the 21st Summer Games in Montreal in 1976. Two 14 karat and 22 karat $100 gold coins were also made for the Montreal Olympics, with mintages of 650,000 and 350,000 respectively. Today these coins are generally valued at their precious metal contents only. The Mint has aggressively lowered the mintages of their new issues to try and guarantee better longterm value for coin buyers, but this does not mean this will be the case..

The Mint made 10 $20 Silver coins for the 1988 Calgary Winter Games, in mintages of about 500,000 each. A 14 karat $100 gold coin for the Calgary Games was issued in a mintage of 145,175 pieces. These coins are likewise not rare, and trade based on their face, or gold, values. The $20 silver coins exist missing the edge lettering. Oddly enough, the Mint 1996 Olympic Centenary commemorative coins are far less seen by coin dealers. The Mint did one $175 gold coin, in a mintage of 22,092, and two $15 silver coins, with a total of 105,645 pieces, dated 1992. We never even bothered carrying these.

6.5 million 2004 Olympic Lucky Loons were circulated. 20,000 2004 colourized Silver Lucky Loons were struck. 10 million 2006 Olympic Lucky Loons circulated. 20,000 2006 colourized Silver Lucky Loons were made. We still have some of these for sale at this time.

Olympic coins are a great way to mark Canadians’ participation in the global games. They are generally not an investment, and should be collected for fun and not for profit. Buy only what you need for yourself and your immediate family. By buying surplus coins, whether rolls or hoards of extra collectibles, you are simply diluting the market and denying someone else the possibility of enjoying the hobby of collecting. Embrace the made for circulation coins and encourage young people to enjoy the Olympics, strive for their personal bests, and to collect coins as a fun and fascinating pastime.

Currently, the Olympic coins are not available for sale to the United States. Please check back soon!

Other Olympic pages:

Newsletter #91
Auction #600

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