Canadian 25-cent coin · Elizabeth II

1989 Canadian 25 cents (quarter)

A 1989 Canadian 25-cent coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 1989

119,084,307

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
1978 - 199999.9% nickel5.05 gnone23.88 mmattracted

How many were struck

119,084,307

Reported mintage, 1989

That is the 84th lowest of the 110 years in which the Mint reports striking a 25-cent coin, in a range running from 242,382 to 629,018,000. 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

1937 - 1972, 1974 - 1991, 1993 - 1998, 2001-2008 and 2001-present

The caribou

Emanuel Hahn's caribou design was adopted in 1937 in an effort to modernize Canada's circulation coins.

The rest of your 1989 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 1989 25-cent coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 1989SilverMintage
1 cent penny98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zincnone1,066,628,200
5 cents nickel75% copper, 25% nickelnone141,435,538
10 cents dime99.9% nickelnone198,693,414
50 cents half dollar99% nickel (minimum)none266,419
1 dollar91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze platingnone184,773,902

Everything Canada struck in 1989

Composition, weight, diameter and mintage are reproduced from the Royal Canadian Mint’s published record for the 25-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.