The History of the Royal Canadian Mint

The history of Canadian currency isn’t nearly as tumultuous as other currency histories and it is even fairly recent! However, this doesn’t make the Royal Canadian Mint any less important and it is still a fairly interesting part of Canadian history, albeit, a fairly even and steady part.

The Need for Canadian Made Currency

In the late 1800s and into the new century, currency for Canada was still created in Britain. However, the demands on the British mints were getting to be too high and so rather than continue building mints and shipping money overseas, Canada was given the mandate and permission to create its own Mint and start producing coins within the country. It made sense; Canada was growing in population and needed more currency to keep up with the demand, so minting locally was cheaper and easier to do.

The work on the new mint was started in 1901 and was complete by 1908. It was built in Ottawa and was still considered a branch of the British Royal Mint, but would create coins specifically for Canadian use. In 1931, the mint and the surrounding land was turned over to the Canadian government as being owned by Canada, no longer by Britain.

The Royal Canadian Mint Opens its Doors and Shines

Just over 100 years ago, the Royal Canadian Mint opened its doors! On January 2nd, 1908, the very first coin was minted-a fifty cent piece. It was pressed by Governor General Grey who was a popular leader. Coins slowly, but steadily were produced up until 1911 when the gold refinery was completed and then orders poured in for more currency to be produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. The refinery quickly became known for outdoing itself in so far as purity of gold went. In 1969, the refinery became known for producing .9999 fine gold bars. In 1976, a new mint opened in 1976 with more modern machinery to bring out coins faster. However, when most people think of the Royal Canadian Mint, they still think of the one in Ottawa which produces many of the coins we use today.

In 2007, the Canadian Mint went down in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the massive 99.999% pure 100kg gold bullion coin worth a whopping one million dollars! Other notable coins include the introduction of the ‘loonie’ in 1987 and the ‘twoonie’ in 1996. The twoonie was notable because it was the first bimetallic coin (a coin that actually looked bimetallic, not as though it was made of one metal). Other noteworthy coins include quarters with color in their center such as the Remembrance Day Quarter and the Olympics Quarters. No other coins were every splashed with colors like red and pink to denote them as being special!

And Today….

Today, the Royal Canadian Mint functions both as a mint and as a living museum featuring a huge range of coins that were created in the Mint. There are all different collections to look at as well as histories behind them with events detailed and artists recognized. It’s a place for families to go and learn more about Canadian history from the perspective of coinage and an all around interesting place.

The Royal Canadian Mint has been producing coins for Canadians for over 100 years and continues to work steadily to ensure high quality and beautiful coins for all Canadians to be proud of.

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