1948 Canadian Silver Dollar

Specifications

Denomination: 1 dollar
Series: Voyageur dollar
Designer: Thomas Humphrey Paget (obverse); Emanuel Hahn (reverse)
Years of issue: 1948
Composition: 80% Silver, 20% Copper
Weight: 23.3276 g
Diameter: 36 mm
Edge: Reeded
KM: KM-46
Mintage: 18780
Key mintages: Key date of the George VI Voyageur dollar series; 18,780 struck — the lowest business-strike mintage of the series. No specimen/proof mintage recorded.

Melt value: $38.71silver $64.40/ozt, copper $0.44/ozt · prices as of Sep 16, 2026

AI-generated illustration — not a photograph of a genuine coin.

Canada's rarest circulating silver dollar — just 18,780 struck in the year George VI dropped 'Emperor of India' from his coins.

History

The 1948 dollar had a mintage of only 18,780, the lowest mintage of any circulating Canadian silver dollar (Wikipedia, Voyageur dollar; APMEX; Coins Numismatics, accessed 2026-09-16).
1948 was the first year of the revised obverse legend GEORGIVS VI DEI GRATIA REX, after ‘ET IND: IMP:’ (Emperor of India) was deleted from George VI’s titles following India’s independence in 1947; the reverse design was unchanged (Coins Numismatics; ANE Coins, accessed 2026-09-16).
The reverse is Emanuel Hahn’s famous Voyageur design: a voyageur and an Indigenous paddler in a canoe carrying bundles, one bearing the initials ‘HB’ for the Hudson’s Bay Company (Coins Numismatics, accessed 2026-09-16).
The next-lowest circulating mintages are the 1947 Maple Leaf issue (21,135) and the 1945 dollar (38,391), making the 1948 the undisputed key date of the circulating silver series (Wikipedia, Voyageur dollar, accessed 2026-09-16).
High-grade examples are trophy coins: certified MS-66 pieces have sold for over $60,000 CAD at auction (CoinsFlip, accessed 2026-09-16).
Approximate market values run VG-8 $588, F-12 $1,160, VF-20 $1,660, EF-40 $1,920, AU-50 $2,140, MS-63 $4,280, and MS-65 $16,200+ — treat these as a snapshot, not a live quote (CoinsFlip, accessed 2026-09-16).

The 1948 dollar is one of the most frequently counterfeited Canadian coins because of its high value — verify exact weight (23.33 g), check that it is non-magnetic, and have it authenticated by ICCS, PCGS or NGC (CoinsFlip, accessed 2026-09-16).
Never clean the coin — cleaning destroys the premium this issue carries (CoinsFlip, accessed 2026-09-16).
Check the obverse legend: a genuine 1948 must read GEORGIVS VI DEI GRATIA REX with no IND IMP; an ‘IND IMP’ legend dated 1948 signals an altered or fake coin (Coins Numismatics; ANE Coins, accessed 2026-09-16).
Scarcity in high grade is the real driver — budget for a certified, problem-free example rather than chasing a raw bargain.