1944 Newfoundland 5 Cents

Perhaps the best explanation of this was given by Jerry Himelfarb who wrote an article on this subject, which later appeared in "Canadian Coin News"*. In it, he explained that the true mintage of the 1944 coinage was not the same as the Official Royal Canadian Mint numbers because the mint's accounting figures, also included coins that were actually ordered for 1943 but were minted in 1944! Using some deductive reasoning, he concluded that the final mintage figures for the 1944 NFLD 5 Cent coinage should have read: 151,090! For the purpose of this book, I will be using his numbers.

To date, there are nearly a dozen variances for this year, but most of these have been treated as Sub-varieties because their differences are too subtle to be included in a separate category. They are divided mainly into groups of either Narrow or Wide date variations and then the positioning of the last two digits has also been considered. It is a very difficult date to sort through in order to isolate a specific variety. Unlike most of the other years, this 1944 series has very few examples with unique and unmistakable characteristics! Unfortunately, this makes the identification of some varieties very difficult! In most instances, a collector will have to use the process of elimination in order to accurately identify a specific variety. However, the essence of this hobby is that the mystery of an unknown variation can be found in the clues!