Canadian 5-cent coin · Elizabeth II

1996 Canadian 5 cents (nickel)

A 1996 Canadian 5-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1996

36,686,000

The Mint records this coin as 75% copper, 25% nickel. There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1982 - 199975% copper, 25% nickel4.6 gnone21.2 mmnot stated

How many were struck

36,686,000

Reported mintage, 1996

That is the 62nd 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

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 - 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 1996 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1996 5-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1996SilverMintage
1 cent penny98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zincnone445,746,000
10 cents dime99.9% nickelnone51,814,000
25 cents quarter99.9% nickelnone28,216,000
50 cents half dollar99% nickel (minimum)none458,000
1 dollar91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze platingnone17,101,000
2 dollars toonieouter ring 99% nickel, inner core 92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickelnone375,483,000

Everything Canada struck in 1996

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.