$20 for $15.41

Over the last few years, the Royal Canadian Mint has been producing a series of silver coins called “$20 for $20,” These are .9999 pure silver coins sold with the face value of $20 (in Canadian funds). They are available directly from the RCM to Canadian and United States buyers only.

The advantage to directly buying coins from the RCM is that the exchange rate is very favorable for us Yanks. At the time of writing, C$1 is worth about 77-cents in U.S. currency making a C$20 purchase about $15.41 in the U.S. Another advantage of purchasing coins from the RCM than a dealer is avoiding the dealer markup. One U.S.-based dealer is selling the current $20 Bugs Bunny silver coin for $19.95 in U.S. currency.

For U.S. buyers who use credit cards to purchase coins on the RCM website, while your credit card will be charged in Canadian funds, your bank will charge you a conversion fee. Conversion fees are different between financial institutions and you should consult them for their rates.

Are these coins really a good deal?

RCM’s $20 for $20 coins struck using 7.96 grams of silver. At 27 millimeters, it is comparable in size to the Canadian half-dollar (27.13 millimeters) and smaller than the U.S. half-dollar (30.61 millimeters). While a nice size, a coin containing 7.96 grams of silver is a little more than one-quarter of a troy ounce of the metal. With the cost of silver $15.92 per troy ounce (and the time of writing), the coin only contains $4.07 worth of silver ($5.25 in Canadian funds).

To put it another way, the silver value of the coin is 75-percent of its cost or 400-percent over its melt value!

Although the Bugs Bunny coin probably requires a licensing fee to be paid to Warner Brothers, the owner of the famous rabbit’s copyright, not all of the coins use copyright images. Even with production and packaging costs, are these coins worth the extra premium?

Questioning the program’s worth aside, both the Bugs Bunny and Superman coins are very cool designs. Aside from being engraved coins (not colored pictures) and struck as specimen coins (similar to the U.S. Mint’s enhanced uncirculated strikes), it is just plain fun to have coins with the image of childhood interests.

For a little more than $30 including fees and shipping, I can get two silver coins with iconic designs. It is not about collecting for value. It is collecting for fun!