Canadian 1-dollar coin · Elizabeth II

1990 Canadian 1 dollar

A 1990 Canadian 1-dollar coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1990

68,402,000

The Mint records this coin as 91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze plating. There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1988 - 200291.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze plating7 gnone26.5 mmattracted

How many were struck

68,402,000

Reported mintage, 1990

That is the 74th 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

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

1987 - 1991, 1993 - present

The Loonie

The 1-dollar bill was replaced in 1987 by a new eleven-sided circulation coin nicknamed the 'Loonie'. Robert-Ralph Carmichael's popular design features a Canadian loon, and is made of aureate bronze.

The rest of your 1990 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1990 1-dollar coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1990SilverMintage
1 cent penny98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zincnone218,035,000
5 cents nickel75% copper, 25% nickelnone42,537,000
10 cents dime99.9% nickelnone65,023,000
25 cents quarter99.9% nickelnone31,258,000
50 cents half dollar99% nickel (minimum)none207,000

Everything Canada struck in 1990

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.