Rare canadian quarter?

Question

I have a quarter from 1999, and the flip side shows an owl, and what looks like a polar bear. I'm not sure if it is a rare coin or not. Does this have any extra value?

Answer 1

That is an April 1999 Millenium " Our Northern Heritage" quarter.  Yes, it is worth slightly more than 25 cents especially if it is in Mint Condition.  But mint condition is important as lots of people snapped them up in April 1999 and stored them away unused.  So if yours has been in circulation for 10 years, it will be worn.  Who knows, it could have been someone who decided to spend it after saving it for 10 years.  

Here is a little history.  For Canada's 125th Birthday in 1992, they decided to do comenrative quarters and one for each province and territory.  They released a different one each month all year long.  That was 12 designs, with fewer coins than if they had released just one special design for the year like they did in 1967 100th aniversary and 1973 RCMP.  I think what they found was a very succesfful way to sell collective sets, and have people hord away special coins.  So they did it again for the millenium.  24 designs for 1999 and 2000 with a different quarter for each month.  They still do it now, with Rememberance Day quarters, and currently only half the Winter Olympic Coins have been released leading up to Vancouver 2010.

I hesitate to link Wikipedia here, because the above is my own thoughts.  But the link does give you most of the images and discriptions.

Answer 2

A quarter's still a quarter. Maybe it'll be worth more 50 years down the road.