Canadian 5-cent coin · Elizabeth II

1964 Canadian 5 cents (nickel)

A 1964 Canadian 5-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1964

78,075,068

The Mint records this coin as 99.9% nickel. There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1955 - 198199.9% nickel4.54 gnone21.21 mmattracted

How many were struck

78,075,068

Reported mintage, 1964

That is the 78th 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

Elizabeth II

The effigy of Queen Elizabeth II first appeared on Canadian coins in 1953 when she was 27 years old. The effigy pictured here was used until 1964, with the inscription ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA, meaning “Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, the Queen. ”

Every portrait by year

The design on the reverse

1937 - 1942, 1946 - 1950, 1952 - 1966, 1968 - present

The beaver

The beaver design was created in 1937 by G.E. Kruger-Gray as part of a coin modernization effort.

The rest of your 1964 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1964 5-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1964SilverMintage
1 cent penny98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zincnone484,655,322
10 cents dime80% silver, 20% copper0.0599 ozt49,518,549
25 cents quarter80% silver, 20% copper0.1500 ozt36,479,343
50 cents half dollar80% silver, 20% copper0.2999 ozt9,377,676
1 dollar80% silver, 20% copper0.5993 ozt7,296,832

Everything Canada struck in 1964

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.