Canadian 5-cent coin · George V

1931 Canadian 5 cents (nickel)

A 1931 Canadian 5-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1931

5,100,830

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

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1922 - 194299% nickel4.54 gnone21.21 mmattracted

How many were struck

5,100,830

Reported mintage, 1931

That is the 23rd lowest of the 117 years in which the Mint reports striking a 5-cent coin, in a range running from 200,050 to 278,530,000. 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

George V

George V was the great-grandfather of His Majesty King Charles III and appeared with the Latin inscription GEORGIVS V DEI GRA:REX ET IND:IMP, which means “George V, by the grace of God, the King and Emperor of India.” For part of 1911, coins did not include the DEI GRA part of the inscription and became known as the “Godless” coins.

Every portrait by year

The design on the reverse

1922 - 1936

The two maple leaves

W.H.J. Blackmore's redesign of the 5-cent coin coincided with the increase of the coin's diameter.

The rest of your 1931 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1931 5-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1931SilverMintage
1 cent penny95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zincnone3,842,776
10 cents dime80% silver, 20% copper0.0599 ozt2,067,421
25 cents quarter80% silver, 20% copper0.1500 ozt537,815
50 cents half dollar80% silver, 20% copper0.2999 ozt57,581

Everything Canada struck in 1931

Composition, weight, diameter and mintage are reproduced from the Royal Canadian Mint’s published record for the 5-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.