Canadian 1-cent coin · Elizabeth II

2002 Canadian 1 cent (penny)

A 2002 Canadian 1-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 2002

830,040,000

The Mint records this coin as 94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper plating. There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
2000 - present94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper plating2.35 gnone19.05 mmattracted

Since 2000, the 1-cent coin can be produced using either the copper-plated steel or copper-plated zinc compositions.

How many were struck

830,040,000

Reported mintage, 2002

That is the 90th 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

1937 - 1966, 1968 - 1981, 1997 - present

The maple leaf twig (round coin)

In 1937, as part of an effort to modernize Canada's coins, G.E. Kruger-Gray created the maple leaf twig design. His initials appear on the right.

The rest of your 2002 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 2002 1-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 2002SilverMintage
5 cents nickel94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, 2% nickel platingnone135,960,000
10 cents dime92% steel, 5.5% copper, 2.5% nickelnone252,563,000
25 cents quarter94% steel, 3.8% copper, 2.2% nickel platingnone187,992,000
50 cents half dollar93.15% steel, 4.75% copper, 2.1% nickel platingnone14,440,000
1 dollar91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze platingnone2,301,000
2 dollars toonieouter ring 99% nickel, inner core 92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickelnone27,020,000

Everything Canada struck in 2002

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.