Canadian 1-dollar coin · Elizabeth II

1971 Canadian 1 dollar

A 1971 Canadian 1-dollar coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1971

4,260,781

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
1968 - 198299.9% nickel15.62 gnone32.13 mmattracted

How many were struck

4,260,781

Reported mintage, 1971

That is the 42nd lowest of the 80 years in which the Mint reports striking a 1-dollar coin, in a range running from 18,780 to 205,405,000. 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

This updated effigy of Queen Elizabeth II appeared with the inscription ELIZABETH II D G REGINA, a shortened form of the original.

Every portrait by year

The design on the reverse

1971

British Columbia's centennial

Thomas Shingles' design commemorates the centennial of British Columbia's joining Confederation. The coin features British Columbia's coat of arms and its provincial flower, the dogwood.

The rest of your 1971 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1971 1-dollar coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1971SilverMintage
1 cent penny98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zincnone298,228,936
5 cents nickel99.9% nickelnone27,312,609
10 cents dime99.9% nickelnone41,106,968
25 cents quarter99.9% nickelnone48,170,428
50 cents half dollar99% nickel (minimum)none2,166,144

Everything Canada struck in 1971

Composition, weight, diameter and mintage are reproduced from the Royal Canadian Mint’s published record for the 1-dollar 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.