I have a Canadian 5 cent coin from 1890 & and half dime from 1866?

Question

On the back it has a crown then below it says 5 cents 1890 which is surrounded by some sort of vine plant. On the front it has a picture of a woman my guess is that it is queen victoria as it says on it "Victoria Dei Gratia Regina" then it says Canada below it. It is in very good shape.

The half dime that i have is not in as great of shape as it is slightly bent. The back has the words "Half dime" and these words are surrounded by plants of some sort. The front has a seated woman with what looks like a staff in her hand. It says "United States of America" and has the date 1866 on it.

I got these from my deceased Grandma along with a bunch of other coins, but these two are the oldest N. American coins aside from some silver dollars from the 1880's. I was just wondering how rare either of these two coins are? I would never sell them as they belonged to my Grandma, but i am interested in if they are rare or not. Thanks.

Answer 1

yahoo's automatic sensor looks at where you might have placed a question recently, and assumes it "might" be where your next question is headed.  No biggie.

Hope you are doing good, and making progress on all your research.

Answer 2

Try the hobby section.  There are coin collectors over there.

Answer 3

Here is a site that has the history and a photo of your half-dime: http://www.oldcoinshop.com/coinhistory/0... (Interestingly, the half-dime was the first denomination struck when the U.S. Mint was established in 1792! Pretty cool!)

Here is a site regarding old Canadian coins, too: http://www.allensinc.com/coins/canadian/... It looks like it will give you values, but value isn't always related to rarity. Ah, found a site with photos: http://coins.granetwork.com/can5pre1930.... Not sure if it will tell you how rare they are, though.

You might try emailing someone at a coin shop or coin collecting club. I have several silver dollars that were my moms, dating back to the 1870s, but I'd never get rid of them either (well, never say "never," if we were starving maybe....lol)