value of Canadian comemorative coins

Reflexions on values of current Commemorative Canadian coins

I have calculated these values from the Canadian Mint

https://www.mint.ca/en/shop/categories/circulation?productSortBy=ReleaseDate

bulk prices all inclusive free of shipping in Canada

$2: CAD 3.2 (mint margin CAD 1.2)

$1: CAD 2.2 (mint margin CAD 1.2)

50c: CAD 1 (mint margin CAD 0.5)

Current available offers on the market and Numista members

$2: USD 4.5 = CAD 6 (retail margin CAD 2.8 = +87% to bulk prices or x3 face value)

$1: USD 3 = CAD 4 (retail margin CAD 1.8 = +81% to bulk prices or x4 face value)

50c: USD 1.5 = CAD 2 (retail margin CAD 1 = +100% to bulk prices or x4 face value)

It appears that

• The Canadian Mint makes a significant profit on circulation coins
• The retail prices add up an extra margin equivalent to nearly twice the Mint margin

This leads to unrealistic prices as these coins minted at 2.000.000 trade for 3 to 4 times face value. That would make sense if they were worth a few cents but here it is a different story as we are looking at a couple of dollars each.

As a matter of fact 2€ commemorative coins minted at 1.000.000 can be obtained for €3 to €4

My first reaction is that these Canadian coins are vastly overvalued by dealers and swappers.

What do you think?

The Royal Canadian Mint is a Crown Corporation that is not funded by the government.  So they naturally have to sell their products with a certain premium attached in order to cover their operating costs.

The Royal Canadian Mint only ships directly to 2 countries (Canada itself and the U.S.).  If you are located outside of those 2 countries, you would typically have to pay a coin dealer/broker/reseller who can obtain the coins and ship them to a country overseas while adding international shipping costs back into the final product sale.  The more middle men who are involved, the higher the cumulative transaction costs.

As an American, I usually only buy something from the Royal Canadian Mint when they offer free shipping directly to the U.S.  I still have to pay local state sales tax on top of the purchase.  For me personally, I'm ok with buying the lower cost uncirculated sets if I can buy it directly from the Royal Canadian Mint with free shipping.  But I don't like the margins on those rolls of Commemorative coins.  So I don't buy those.

Yup, if you're in the US, it's only worth buying from the RCM when they offer free shipping. One time, I ordered something and they tried to charge me $13 for s&h. Had to call them and get them to revert the charge. Good thing I saved the invoice which showed 0.00 in that line.

You added the link to the website with Special wrap rolls, whatever it is (I guess it could be some kind of first strikes or at least in Rolls there are less small damages for coin surface than in bags). So the price is higher. I'm not sure if this is the case for all 1$ and 2$ but I know that at least some of these coins were issued in these special rolls and also individually, for circulation at face value (not sure how it was distributed in Canada, probably via banks or post offices).

Anyway, here in Poland I can buy some of Canadian 1$ coins at good price, eg. 2024 Montgomery for 6.99 PLN (=2,44 CAD) for each coloured and not coloured coin. Buying at official RCM distributor. I guess coins could be these issued not in Special Rolls but these issued for circulation. 

Edit. Forgot to mention that I need to add shipping costs (about 7-8 CAD) so not economically to buy only these coins but the company is a distributor of many mints, including RCM, RAM and british Royal Mint so always can combine purchase of multiple coins with one shipping costs.