Canadian 5-cent coin · Elizabeth II

2017 Canadian 5 cents (nickel)

A 2017 Canadian 5-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 2017

20,000,000

The Mint records this coin as 94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, 2% 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 - present94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, 2% nickel plating3.95 gnone21.2 mmattracted

How many were struck

20,000,000

Reported mintage, 2017

That is the 55th 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.

The Mint prints this figure as “Classic: 0, Canada 150: 20,000,000”, splitting the year between designs. The total above is the sum of those figures.

Portrait on the obverse

Elizabeth II

Canadian artist, Susanna Blunt, designed the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, again accompanied by the words ELIZABETH II D G REGINA. Blunt's version recalls the effigy of George VI, who also chose to be portrayed without a crown.

Every portrait by year

Designs 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.

2017

Canada 150

My Canada, My Inspiration: Living Traditions 2017 150th anniversary of Confederation Living Traditions by Gerald Gloade, one of five winners of the My Canada, My Inspiration contest.

The rest of your 2017 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 2017 5-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 2017SilverMintage
10 cents dime92% steel, 5.5% copper, 2.5% nickelnone20,000,000
25 cents quarter94% steel, 3.8% copper, 2.2% nickel platingnone20,000,000
1 dollarmulti-ply brass plated steelnone10,000,000
2 dollars toonieouter ring - multi-ply nickel plated steel, insert - multi-ply brass plated aluminum bronzenone10,000,000

Everything Canada struck in 2017

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.