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The Royal Canadian Mint produces all of Canada’s coins as well as the coins of a number of other countries. It is one of Canada's Top 100 Employers. It’s often abbreviated as RCM, and is known in French as the Monnaie Royale Canadienne.

What the Royal Canadian Mint does

The Royal Canadian Mint has a number of important tasks:

• Manufacturing all Canadian coins
• Producing the currencies of other countries.
• Designing and manufacturing special and commemorative coins
• Gold and silver assaying and refining

Commemorative coins

The Royal Canadian Mint has been producing medals since 1945 and commemorative coins since 1967. Some of the special commissions and commemorative coins that the Royal Canadian Mint has produced are:

• Collector coins
• Bullion coins in gold, silver, palladium, and platinum
• Watches incorporating Canadian dollars
• Customized tokens and medals

For a short time they also manufactured exclusive jewellery that would feature coin designs.

Who runs the Royal Canadian Mint?

Canada currency is technically issued by the head of state in Canada (currently the Queen of England) and the Royal Canadian Mint has been a Crown corporation since 1969. The mint is run on a day to day basis by the Master of the Mint. He is appointed, along with a Board of Directors, by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.

Making Coin History

They has been the first to use a number of new processes. Some examples include:

Reading coins

The Royal Canadian Mint was the first mint in the world to embed electromagnetic signatures within coins, so meaning that they could be “read” by machines, rather than having coin processing machines reading them by weight. This makes coin processing faster and more accurate


Coloured coins

In 2004 the Royal Canadian Mint produced a 25¢ coin to commemorate Remembrance Day. This had a red poppy on the back and was the first multi-coloured coin in common circulation in the world

History of the Royal Canadian Mint

The first cent coins to be minted specifically for Canada were struck in 1858 in the Royal Mint in London, England. For the next fifty years all Canadian coins would be struck in England either in the Royal Mint or privately in Birmingham. Due to an increase in economic activity, as well as a desire to domestically control money, it was decided that Canada would get its own branch of the Royal Mint, in Ottawa.

The Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint was opened by Lord Grey in 1908, with a refinery opening in 1915. In 1931 the Royal Mint in London relinquished control, ceding it to the Canadian Department of Finance and the mint got its current name of the “Royal Canadian Mint”. In 1969 it became a Crown corporation.

The Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg

In 1976 a branch of the Royal Canadian Mint was opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This produces all the coins intended for circulation, leaving the Ottawa branch to produce commemorative coins and to refine gold and silver.

Foreign coins

The Royal Canadian Mint produces coins for many countries, either as finished coins or as “blanks” that can be struck within the country. Countries that have had coins produced by the Royal Canadian Mint have included Cuba, Norway, Yemen, Colombia, Iceland, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Barbados, New Zealand and Uganda.