I still remember the excitement I felt in August of 1963 when I saw that the Krun-Chee Potato Chips at the News Depot on Dundas Street in downtown London (a regular haunt of mine on Saturdays) had CFL coins free inside! I wondered how long they'd been out since Krun-Chee Potato Chips weren't sold in too many London area stores. A few days later I was happy to discover (and a bit confused as well) that the Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips (also uncommon at the time) at Ken's Variety on Wharncliffe Road just a few blocks away from my house also contained these coins. I also remember pulling another one of these coins out of a bag of chips (I can't remember which brand) a week or so later on a family train trip to Toronto to visit relatives and take in the Canadian National Exhibition.
(Not mine.)
The real problem I had at the time though was that I was also buying DC superhero comics and my buddy Anthony and I had earlier that summer embarked on a mission of collecting all bubble gum cards. (Quantity not condition was our focus.) I couldn't finance all those collecting activities at the same time so I didn't get too far with the 160 coin CFL set.
As a result, these 1963 CFL coins carry a big dollop of nostalgia for me. Though this set is tough and rather expensive to complete these days, I managed the feat in 1999 or so. But because I like these coins so much, about twelve years ago I decided to break my set into two - English only backs and bilingual backs - just so I could continue collecting them. A very noble Canadian collecting venture if I do say so myself!
I've launched a more determined bid to complete both sets in the past couple of years. Here are scans of a few more from my collection:
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