Canadian 50-cent coin · Elizabeth II

2001 Canadian 50 cents (half dollar)

A 2001 Canadian 50-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 2001

403,000

The Mint records this coin as 93.15% steel, 4.75% copper, 2.1% nickel 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 - present93.15% steel, 4.75% copper, 2.1% nickel plating6.9 gnone27.13 mmattracted

How many were struck

403,000

Reported mintage, 2001

That is the 34th 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

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

Designs 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.

1997 - present

The modified Coat of Arms

In 1994, the motto of the Order of Canada was added to the Coat of Arms, which is the version of the coin produced today.

The rest of your 2001 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 2001 50-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 2001SilverMintage
1 cent penny94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper platingnone928,434,000
5 cents nickel94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, 2% nickel platingnone166,686,000
10 cents dime92% steel, 5.5% copper, 2.5% nickelnone272,465,000
25 cents quarter94% steel, 3.8% copper, 2.2% nickel platingnone62,227,000
1 dollar91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze platingnone0
2 dollars toonieouter ring 99% nickel, inner core 92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickelnone11,910,000

Everything Canada struck in 2001

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.