Face values question

[SpaceCash]

I've noticed that silver coins have a face values in their country of origin.

A US dollar has a different value to five Canadian dollars and to £2 gbp and yet they are all available as a 1 oz t coin.

Does anyone know how this is decided? Alternatively is there anything I could read that would give me an insight into it? Might be an interesting subject for discussion as well

[silversword]

I've always wondered about this, there seems to be very little logic in it, and unless it's due to historical significance like the silver dollar, the only explanation I could come up with (tinfoil hats on now please everyone) is that governments want to ensure that bullion coins don't get circulated, because otherwise that would indicate gold and silver are money (as it used to be), but this doesn't fit with the way "money" gets created today.

 

So to make sure of it, the bullion coins have a face value so far below melt value that they would never ever be used. I doubt there is any system to determine this, it just has to be a nominal value. That way although the coins are legal tender nobody in their right mind would use them as such - which is how those in power would like it to stay. 

[ArthGoch]

When the gold standard ( and thus be default silver) was abandoned any correlation between the face value of a coin and a coin's intrinsic value was removed.

 

Increasingly national mints had attempted to pitch face value vis a vis mintage number. As a general rule the higher the coin value lower the mintage. 

 

Check out the RCM website and you can see the denomination pattern they use

[ChrisSilver]

The UK £20 coin probably has the highest ratio of Silver content to face value. I may be wrong, but to me this seems to have the highest face value given the weight of the silver content inside.

[Danny-boy]

The UK £20 coin probably has the highest ratio of Silver content to face value. I may be wrong, but to me this seems to have the highest face value given the weight of the silver content inside.

I think that's probably correct.