The fifty years this site does not cover
Canadian coins before 1908
Canada has had its own coinage since 1858, but not its own mint. For fifty years the coins were struck in England, and the Royal Canadian Mint publishes no specification and no mintage figure for any of them. This page explains what that costs you and what to do instead.
Why the record starts in 1908
The Ottawa mint opened in 1908, and the Royal Canadian Mint’s published tables begin there. Every specification period and every mintage figure on this site comes from those tables, so the site begins there too.
Before that, Canadian coins were struck in England. The Mint’s own material acknowledges the earlier coinage in passing - its design notes describe reverses running from 1858 - but it publishes no weight, no fineness and no mintage for any year before 1908.
That leaves a real gap, and the honest thing is to say so rather than to fill it. A site that publishes 1898 mintage figures without being able to say where they came from is a site whose 1948 figures you should also stop trusting.
What the Mint does say about those years
Only this: which designs were in use. Its reverse design notes reach back before the Ottawa mint existed, and those are the only pre-1908 statements in the source this site uses.
Designs the Mint dates before 1908
1 cent · 1858 - 1920
This 1-cent coin features the design of L.C. Wyon of the Royal Mint. It portrays maple leaves wrapped around a vine. W.H.J. Blackmore designed this reverse of the 1-cent coin. The representation of maple leaves wrapped around a vine was kept.
5 cents · 1858 - 1921
The two crossed maple boughs appeared on all 5-cent coins from 1858 to 1921. These coins were nicknamed "fish scales" for their tiny size; their diameter is only 15.5 mm - smaller than the current dime!
10 cents · 1858 - 1936
The design of two crossed maple boughs appear on all 10-cent, 25-cent, and 50-cent coins from 1858 to 1936.
25 cents · 1870 - 1936
The 25-cent coin was first issued in 1870. The coin used the same design of two crossed maple boughs that appeared on the 10-cent coins and 50-cent coins from 1858 to 1936.
50 cents · 1858 - 1936
The design of two crossed maple boughs appears on all 10-cent, 25-cent, and 50-cent coins from 1858 to 1936.
What you can still work out about a pre-1908 coin
A good deal, as it happens, as long as you are careful about which part is sourced.
- Whether it is silver at all. The 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cent denominations existed before 1908, and of those only the 1-cent coin was base metal. A pre-1908 Canadian coin in any of the other four denominations is a silver coin.
- Roughly what it holds. The Mint’s earliest published period for the 10, 25 and 50 cent coins and the five-cent piece is 92.5 per cent silver, running from 1908. That standard did not begin in 1908; the Mint simply does not publish what came before. If your coin is sterling, the figures on the relevant denomination page are the closest sourced comparison available.
- That it is probably worth more than its silver. A coin more than a century old, from a short colonial mintage, is a collector coin first. Melt value is the floor and not the answer, and on early Canadian coinage the gap between the two is usually large.
What you cannot get here is a mintage figure, a mint mark table or a weight specific to a pre-1908 year. Those exist in the standard Canadian catalogue, which is copyrighted and which this site does not reproduce.
If you have a pre-1908 Canadian coin, the useful next step is not a melt calculation. It is to find out what that specific date and denomination is, because early Canadian coinage includes genuinely scarce issues and the difference between a common one and a scarce one is not visible. Why this site does not tell you which is which.
If you can fill the gap
This site would cover 1858 to 1907 tomorrow given a citable public record for it: a government report, an official mint return, a digitised annual report of the Deputy Master of the Mint. Something with a publisher and a date, that a reader could check.
What it will not do is take those figures from a catalogue or from a hobbyist compilation of one, because that would be copying someone else’s work and presenting it as sourced. If you know of a record that qualifies, tell us and we will read it.
In the meantime the 1-cent coin page begins at 1908, and so does every other denomination page here except the dollar and the two-dollar coin, which did not exist yet.