Hiya,

I'm an amateur coin dealer in London. I have about $1000 worth of current Canadian coins, unfortunately mostly nickels, but not nickel nickels if you see what I mean.

I normally sell them in small amounts to aspiring tourists, but my family has now been invited to a wedding in Vancouver in September. I've never been to Canada before. We are Polish citizens and will probably go via YYZ or YUL.

I frequently fly around Europe with the max cabin baggage allowance of coins and have not had a problem, but then customs doesn't really show itself in Europe. I have heard that the CBSA is not as bad as the US CBP, but I am wondering if there will be any issues going through customs in Canada with 4kg of coins each. They will be rolled up.

I will just say it is our spending money but it's probably not something they see every day...


PS. I have to add that I recently sold 20kg of American quarters to someone who wasn't an American, for their face value in GB�, and he seemed to think that he would be fine to bring them into the US in his checked baggage... I have not been to the US either, but at least I know about TSA locks and he didn't.

You declare what you have and see what happens. As the coins are in rolls it would be reasonable for the agents to assume that they could contain more value than what appears at the ends (such a gold coins). It would not be out of order to ask that the rolls be opened to show their actual contents as items should not be wrapped for inspection.

A good question. Canadian coins (from the early 20s at latest if not even earlier) are still legal tender. Doesn't mean CCRA won't try to tax them.

Under what basis would the CRA tax them?

Well they have been rolled up in UK coin bags so hopefully they should be able to see that all the coins are the same without unwrapping...

The oldest coin is probably from the 1970s, I have sold the copper pennies and nickel nickels to a scrap metal dealer in Poland (I don't think this is illegal outside of Canada, although they do have the Queen's head so not sure about in the UK ), and sold the rare years etc to collectors.

I assume the point was that there's a risk that CBSA will think they are worth more than their face value (transitioned from currency to collectible) and will then charge duty and taxes if the value exceeds their duty free allowance.

Frankly, I wouldn't worry about it. Just bring them in.