Question About Some Silver Coins at the Royal Canadian Mint

[astrostu]

I was perusing the Royal Canadian Mint's web site and noticed two coins that I think look really cool. One of them is a "Crystal Raindrop" silver coin, and the other is a silver "triceratops" coin, part of a 4-coin series.

 

Does anyone know much about these coins (or have them)? I think they look cool, but they seem remarkably expensive (like 5-10x spot). My main question, I guess, is are these effectively gimmics, much like the colored US Silver Eagles (that have the printing making Liberty's dress red and white, the sun yellow, etc.)? Or are they more of a "regular / limited issue" bullion, kinda like the UHR St. Gaudens for 2009? Any other info you have, perhaps?

[YeahToast]

As a collector of Canadian circulation strikes I'd call these gimmicks. The Triceratops is kind of cool but not $40CAD cool.

 

Shiro should be along eventually with a rant about the proliferation of Royal Canadian Mint products.

[thirdgreenham]

Hey there!

 

I have both of those coins in my shop and they really aren't linked to the bullion value of silver. At first, they're basically set at whatever the RCM wants to sell them for. That would be their original issue price. The crystal raindrop is a nice looking coin, but a bit pricey at $89.95 CAD. The dinosaur series are really wonderfully done. I love the first one, the triceratops is okay and I believe the T-Rex is the next one due out. These are fairly affordable at $39.95 CAD. I wouldn't really call these gimmicks, but the RCM seems to be making a boatload of different kinds of coins these days. If you buy what you like, you can't go wrong. (thumbs u

 

Let me know if you would like either of these, or you should be able to order directly from the mint, if you'd like.

 

Andy