1947 Maple Leaf 50 Cents

Specifications

Denomination: 50 cents
Series: 50 cents — George VI
Designer: Thomas Humphrey Paget (obverse); G. E. Kruger Gray (reverse)
Years of issue: 1947
Composition: 80% Silver, 20% Copper
Weight: 11.6638 g
Diameter: 29.72 mm
Edge: Reeded
KM: KM-36
Mintage: 424885

Melt value: $19.35silver $64.40/ozt, copper $0.44/ozt · prices as of Sep 16, 2026

CC BY-SA 2.0 by Jerry "Woody" (Wikimedia Commons File:CANADA, GEORGE VI 1946 -50 CENTS a – Flickr – woody1778a.jpg). Shows the reverse of a 1946 George VI 50-cent piece — same coat-of-arms design as the 1947 issue, but dated 1946 and without the maple-leaf mark; NOT the 1947 Maple Leaf 50 cents.

A 1947-dated half dollar actually struck in 1948 — the tiny maple leaf marks coins made after India's independence forced the King's titles to change.

History

India became independent in August 1947, which removed ET IND IMP (‘Emperor of India’) from George VI’s royal style; while the Royal Canadian Mint waited for dies with the corrected legend, it kept striking coins into 1948 from the old 1947 dies (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).
To distinguish these 1948 strikings from the regular 1947 issue, the mint added a small maple leaf after the date (GreatCollections; Colonial Acres Coins, accessed 2026-09-16).
The published mintage is 38,433 maple-leaf pieces, against 424,885 regular 1947 halves (GreatCollections; CoinVarieties, accessed 2026-09-16).
Two shapes of the digit 7 were used — straight and curved — creating a small matrix of maple-leaf varieties that advanced Canadian collectors work to complete (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).
Reference naming for the 7 shapes differs: Charlton (2009) calls the left-curving 7 the ‘Straight 7’ variety (Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16), while other dealers describe the tail curving right as ‘Curved 7’ and the tail curving left as ‘Straight 7’ — so always confirm which reference a seller is using before paying a variety premium (Heritage Auctions; Colonial Acres Coins, accessed 2026-09-16).
The 1947 Maple Leaf coins run from the cent to the dollar and are collected as a distinct one-year group (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16); the half dollar carries Paget’s George VI obverse and G. E. Kruger Gray’s crowned Canadian coat of arms from the 1937 redesign (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).

Specifications

composition
designers
diameter
edge
weight

Collector notes

On genuine pieces the maple leaf is crisp and fully formed; well-struck examples show every quartering of the shield, while a mushy or indistinct leaf signals a weak strike worth less (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).
Don’t pay a variety premium until the 7 shape is settled: straight-7 vs curved-7 naming differs between Charlton and other references, so verify the actual digit shape against the book you collect by (Heritage Auctions; Colonial Acres Coins, accessed 2026-09-16).
The issue is scarce but not a great rarity — a certified MS62 example was recently listed at $318.75 by a Canadian dealer, so treat that as a dated snapshot and check current auction results before buying (Colonial Acres Coins, accessed 2026-09-16).
Cleaned or polished halves are common; original luster and mark-free fields drive the premium in mint-state grades (general collector guidance).
Certification counts could not be verified from a named source today; check PCGS/NGC population reports live.