Canadian 1-cent coin · Elizabeth II

1991 Canadian 1 cent (penny)

A 1991 Canadian 1-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1991

831,001,000

The Mint records this coin as 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc. There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1982 - 199698% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc2.5 gnone19.1 mmnot attracted

How many were struck

831,001,000

Reported mintage, 1991

That is the 91st lowest of the 105 years in which the Mint reports striking a 1-cent coin, in a range running from 1,000,622 to 1,261,883,000. Mintage is a count of coins made, not of coins that survive: the Mint has no way of knowing how many of these were later returned and melted, and for a silver denomination in the 1960s that number is large.

Portrait on the obverse

Elizabeth II

A new effigy of Queen Elizabeth II was unveiled in 1990 when she was 64 years old. This was the first to be designed by a Canadian, Dora de Pédery-Hunt, and the coin kept the ELIZABETH II D G REGINA inscription.

Every portrait by year

The design on the reverse

1982 - 1996

The maple leaf twig (12-sided coin)

The shape of the maple leaf twig was altered to make identification easier for the visually impaired. The coin reverted to the round design in 1997.

The rest of your 1991 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1991 1-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1991SilverMintage
5 cents nickel75% copper, 25% nickelnone10,931,000
10 cents dime99.9% nickelnone50,397,000
25 cents quarter99.9% nickelnone459,000
50 cents half dollar99% nickel (minimum)none490,000
1 dollar91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze platingnone23,156,000

Everything Canada struck in 1991

Composition, weight, diameter and mintage are reproduced from the Royal Canadian Mint’s published record for the 1-cent coin, retrieved 2026-09-04. Silver content is calculated from that published weight and fineness rather than transcribed. Portrait periods come from the Mint’s Faces of the Monarch. No value on this page is a collector price. Methodology.