Canadian 2-dollar coin · Elizabeth II

2008 Canadian 2 dollars (toonie)

A 2008 Canadian 2-dollar coin contains no silver.

No silver

Reported mintage, 2008

18,400,000

The Mint records this coin as outer ring 99% nickel, inner core 92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickel. There is no melt trade in it and no dealer prices it by weight.

What the Mint says it is made of

PeriodCompositionWeightSilverDiameterMagnet
1996 - 2012outer ring 99% nickel, inner core 92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickel7.3 gnone28 mmnot stated

How many were struck

18,400,000

Reported mintage, 2008

That is the 13th lowest of the 29 years in which the Mint reports striking a 2-dollar coin, in a range running from 1,045,000 to 375,483,000. 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

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

The design on the reverse

400th Anniversary of the founding of Quebec City (2008)

400th Anniversary of the founding of Quebec City

Quebec artist Geneviève Bertrand won a design competition to create a new reverse of the 2-dollar circulation coin commemorating the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. The date 1608 appeared on the left side of the outer ring, while 2008 appeared on the right of the ring on this commemorative coin's reverse side. Only six million of these special coins circulated, in addition to more than 17 million 2008 Toonies produced with the traditional Polar Bear design. As the date was moved to the reverse side of this commemorative coin, the Mint Mark was moved to the core of the coin on the obverse, to the immediate left of Her Majesty's effigy.

The rest of your 2008 change

Nobody inherits one denomination. If there is a 2008 2-dollar coin in the tin, these are the other coins carrying that date and whether they hold any silver.

DenominationComposition in 2008SilverMintage
1 cent penny94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper platingnone787,625,000
5 cents nickel94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, 2% nickel platingnone278,530,000
10 cents dime92% steel, 5.5% copper, 2.5% nickelnone467,495,000
25 cents quarter94% steel, 3.8% copper, 2.2% nickel platingnone387,222,000
50 cents half dollar93.15% steel, 4.75% copper, 2.1% nickel platingnone211,000
1 dollar91.5% nickel, 8.5% bronze platingnone29,561,000

Everything Canada struck in 2008

Composition, weight, diameter and mintage are reproduced from the Royal Canadian Mint’s published record for the 2-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.