Canadian 50-cent coin · Elizabeth II

1972 Canadian 50 cents (half dollar)

A 1972 Canadian 50-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1972

2,515,632

The Mint records this coin as 99% nickel (minimum). There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1968 - 197999% nickel (minimum)8.1 gnone27.13 mmattracted

How many were struck

2,515,632

Reported mintage, 1972

That is the 73rd lowest of the 96 years in which the Mint reports striking a 50-cent coin, in a range running from 19,213 to 14,440,000. 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

This updated effigy of Queen Elizabeth II appeared with the inscription ELIZABETH II D G REGINA, a shortened form of the original.

Every portrait by year

The design on the reverse

1959 - 1966, 1968 - present

The modified Coat of Arms

The Canadian Government approved a new Coat of Arms in 1957. In 1959 it appeared on the 50-cent coin, where it remains to this day.

The rest of your 1972 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1972 50-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1972SilverMintage
1 cent penny98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zincnone451,304,591
5 cents nickel99.9% nickelnone62,417,387
10 cents dime99.9% nickelnone60,169,387
25 cents quarter99.9% nickelnone43,743,387
1 dollar99.9% nickelnone2,193,000

Everything Canada struck in 1972

Composition, weight, diameter and mintage are reproduced from the Royal Canadian Mint’s published record for the 50-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.