In Canada, a penny (minted 1858–2012) is an out-of-production and out-of-circulation coin worth one cent, or of a dollar. The Royal Canadian Mint refers to the coin as the "1-cent coin", but in practice the terms penny and cent predominate.
First minted in 1858, the cent was primarily issued as a bronze or with bronze-plated coin throughout its production. Like all Canadian coins, the obverse depicts the reigning Canadian monarch at the time of issue.
Attempts to abolish the penny began in the late 20th century but were initially met with resistance as they were considered a necessity to pay provincial sales taxes. Money had been lost in penny production since at least the mid-1980s and surveys indicated the coin was falling out of use. Attitudes against the penny grew in the late 2000s decade and, in 2010, the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance recommended the penny be removed from circulation.
Production of the penny ceased in May 2012, and the Royal Canadian Mint ceased distribution of them on February 4, 2013. However, the coin remains legal tender. Nevertheless, once distribution of the coin ceased, vendors were no longer expected to return pennies as change for cash purchases and were encouraged to round purchases to the nearest five cents. Goods can still be priced in one-cent increments, with non-cash transactions like credit cards being paid to the exact cent.
Etymology
The Royal Canadian Mint refers to the coin as the "1-cent coin", but in practice the terms penny and cent predominate. Penny was likely readily adopted because the previous coinage in Canada (up to 1858) was the British monetary system, where Canada used British pounds, shillings, and pence as coinage alongside U.S. decimal coins.
In Canadian French, the penny is often known by the loanword cent; in contrast with the heteronymous word meaning "hundred" (), this keeps the English pronunciation . Slang terms include , , or (black penny), although common Quebec French usage is .
History
Large cents (1858–1920)
The first pennies minted for what would later become the Canadian Confederation originated in legislation enacted in 1853. Per the Act 16 Vict. c. 158, the Province of Canada was to issue "dollars, cents, and mills" that would co-circulate with English shillings and pence. After five years, an order to mint new coins came in 1858 as an effort to improve the Canadian monetary system. This was needed as by this time, the pounds, shillings, livres, and sous in circulation had become antiquated. Pennies, or one-cent coins, were struck in bronze, had a diameter of and weighed each. These pennies all have an "H" mintmark on them as they were made in Birmingham, England, by Ralph Heaton & Sons. Heaton continued to mint pennies for Canada in 1881 and 1882 while providing new coin presses and other machinery to the Royal Mint in London. As a result the words were added into the design the following year, and large cents continued to be produced until 1920. Pennies were reduced to their modern size that year which brought them closer in size to the American penny. These smaller pennies featured an unchanged obverse design with the effigy of George V looking left surrounded by abbreviations. The reverse was given a new design with "the words ONE CENT supported by a maple leaf on either side, and bearing the word CANADA above and the date of issue below." Starting in 1922, a "period of economic malaise" that lasted throughout the mid-1920s led to low mintage amounts for pennies. Mintage figures "marked a hesitant return" in 1926; over two million pieces were struck that year. The new effigy of George VI was designed by Humphrey Paget and was ready for use later in the year. The king is shown on the obverse side facing left, with the inscription "". The reverse was designed by George Kruger Gray and depicted a maple twig with two leaves; the wording "1 CENT" appears above them, and "CANADA" with the date is shown below. While pennies with their new design continued to be minted unabated throughout World War II, there was a change in composition. Starting on April 1, 1942, Canadian pennies had their copper content increased from 95.5 percent to 98 percent and their tin content lowered from 3 percent to 0.5 percent.
The Indian Independence Act 1947 affected the penny, as the words (Emperor of India) had to be removed from the obverse of the coin. This change was made under article 7.2 of the act. As the dies omitting the title were not immediately ready for use, a small maple leaf was added next to the 1947-dated coins on the reverse for pennies minted into 1948. This was not the first major alteration; from a collector's standpoint "the mid-20th century brought a series of varieties to Canadian coins". For Canadian coinage, this marked the first time that master dies were made at the Royal Canadian Mint. Canadian pennies dated 1953 to 1955 come in two major varieties "with and without a fold of fabric" (aka strap) on the new effigy. The reason for this remains unclear as proposed theories include overly polished dies, or alternatively the relief of the effigy being too high to strike properly. In 1956, the Master of the Royal Canadian Mint noted that of worn bronze coins and of World War II–era tombac nickels were converted for use in one-cent coinage. High-speed presses were installed at the mint in the early 1960s, which meant that more Canadian pennies were being made at rates that exceeded 70% when compared to prior years.
In 1964, Queen Elizabeth approved a second effigy of herself on Canadian coinage, which was made by British artist and sculptor Arnold Machin. This second bust features the Queen facing right while wearing a tiara surrounded by Latin text where "" is abbreviated again to read "" Canada celebrated its centennial in 1967; this was marked by a special design on the reverse side of each circulating denomination. For the penny, artist Alex Colville designed a depiction of a rock dove in flight, with a dual date of "1867–1967". The reverse design reverted back to George Kruger Gray's maple leaf in 1968, and in 1978 slight changes were made to the composition and thickness which gave the pennies a "thin planchet". Further changes were made to the penny in 1980 which included a slight reduction of 0.05 mm in diameter, and a weight change from 3.24 g to 2.8 g.
Canadian pennies minted from 1982 to 1996 have a twelve-sided edge to them, which was put in place to help assist the visually impaired. While their composition did not change, these new pennies are also lighter: their weight was further reduced from 2.8 to 2.5 g. In 1990, a third effigy of the queen was used for Canadian pennies which was designed by Hungarian-Canadian sculptor Dora de Pedery-Hunt. This third design depicts Elizabeth II when she was 64 years old surrounded by the previously used Latin script. The twelve-sided shape was changed back to a round shape during this time as the copper-plated zinc proved difficult to plate.
Elizabeth II was honoured on the penny in 2002 as the coins carried a dual date of "1952–2002", for her Golden Jubilee. Penny mintages for "2002" also include those marked with and without a "P" below Elizabeth II's bust. This letter identifies those made of copper-plated steel, as opposed to those with copper-plated zinc. Two effigies of the Queen were used in the following year which include Hunt's "old effigy", and a fourth and final effigy made by portrait artist Susanna Blunt. This final depiction of the Queen shows a right-facing uncrowned bust with the same previously used Latin script. While no immediate action was taken by the Canadian government, studies were eventually conduced by parliament three years later.
Sometime in mid-2010, the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance began a study on the future of the one-cent coin. The committee's study concluded towards the end of the year, and on December 14, 2010, they recommended the penny be removed from circulation. Their argument concluded that a century of inflation had eroded the value and usefulness of the one-cent piece. Rather than being spent, they estimated that the average Canadian had as many as 600 pennies hoarded away. On March 29, 2012, the federal government announced in its budget that it would withdraw the penny from circulation in the fourth quarter of 2012. In their reasoning the government cited the cost of producing a penny which was 1.6 cents per coin.
The final penny was minted at the Royal Canadian Mint's Winnipeg, Manitoba, plant on the morning of May 4, 2012. It was then entrusted to the Bank of Canada Museum in Ottawa, where it can be seen on display. On February 4, 2013, the mint began melting down the estimated 35billion pennies that were in circulation. On the same day, Google celebrated the beginning of the end for the Canadian penny with a Google Doodle.
Aftermath
Cash transactions in Canada are now rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 cents. The rounding is not done on each individual item, but on the total amount, with totals being rounded to the nearest multiple of 5, i.e., totals ending in round down to 0, totals ending in round to 5, and totals ending in round up to 10.
Based on technical specifications provided by the Mint Act, only pennies produced from 1982 to their discontinuation in 2013 are still legally "circulation coins". The Currency Act says that "A payment in coins [...] is a legal tender for no more than [...] twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent." Nevertheless, once distribution of the coin ceased, vendors were no longer expected to return pennies as change for cash purchases and were encouraged to round purchases to the nearest five cents. Goods can still be priced in one-cent increments, with non-cash transactions like credit cards being paid to the exact cent.
Composition and size
{|class="wikitable"
! Years !! Mass !! Diameter/shape !! Composition
|-
| 1858–1859
|
| , round
| 95% copper, 5% tin & zinc (bronze)
|-
| 1876–1920
|-
| 1858
| 421,000 <!--See history section regarding the low mintage.-->
|-
| 1859
| 9,579,000
|-
| 1881 H
| 2,000,000
|-
| 1903
| 4,000,000
|-
| 1911 No ""
| 4,663,486
|-
| 1912 With ""
| 5,107,642
|-
| 1913
| 5,735,405
|-
| 1953 Strap
|-
| 1954
| 1,089,625,000
|-
| 2002 P
| 114,212,000
|-
| 2003 P Uncrowned
| 591,257,000
|-
| 2004
| 653,317,000
| rowspan=2 | 886,275,000
|-
| 2008
| 787,625,000
|-
| 2009 NM
| 36,575,000
| 486,200,000
|-
| 2011 M
| 361,350,000
|-
| 2011 NM
| 301,400,000
|-
| 2012 NM
| 87,972,000
| 90th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mint (matte finish)
|-
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|
|
| Elizabeth II (Coronation Jubilee) (Proof set, copper coin)
|-
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|
|
| 75th Anniversary of Canada's Voyageur Silver Dollar (Proof set, copper coin)
|-
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|
|
| 100th anniversary of the 1911 Silver Dollar (Proof set, copper coin)
|-
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|
|
| 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada ("The forgotten 1927 Designs") (Proof set, silver coin)
|-
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|
|
| 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada (Centennial Rock Dove; 2017 version) (Proof set, gold-plated silver coin)
|}
Collecting
According to the Canadian Coin Digest, mintages for Canadian coinage are not always reliable in determining rarity. Valuable patterns also include brass pennies dated "1937" which were produced at the Paris Mint. One such example listed by Stacks Bowers sold for on August 2, 2017.
Canadian pennies are also included in three different collectable sets which include proof, proof-like (PL), and specimen (SP). Canadian pennies in specimen sets date back to 1858, while proof and proof-like coinage are modern in comparison.
See also
- — with potential to be informed by the Canadian experience
Notes
References
External links
- Value of Canadian Pennies
- Coinage Designs of 1967
- All you need to know about Canada's penny withdrawal CBC News, March 30, 2012.