Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is the institution that manufactures the circulation coins in the country, producing coins for other nations. The Mint designs and produces customized medals, gold, platinum, palladium, and silver bullion coins, collector coins, and trade dollar watches. It also offers silver and gold assay and refinery services. For a brief period of time, the mind also offered high-end jewelry with coin designs.

As a Crown corporation, the Mint functions under the legislative provisions of the Royal Canadian Mint Act. While money in circulation is issued under the authority of the monarch, in principle, the Master of the Mint, or the President and CEO oversees all operations. The Master is appointed in the capacity of a Senior Executive Officer, by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, reporting to the Board of Directors.

The manufacturing plant in Winnipeg, together with the headquarters in Ottawa, form a high-end mining operation, equipped with highly advanced coin production equipment and technologies. In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint received a Guinness World Records certification for producing the world’s largest coin. Weighing 100 kg, this masterpiece contains 99.999 percent pure gold.

The Royal Canadian Mint Protective Services employs causal and full-time security officers, responsible for the inspection and security of the Mint’s facilities. Officers carry firearm and wear grey uniforms with body armor. Their duties include monitoring shipments dispatched from and received by the Royal Mint’s facilities, security escorts, and operating X-Ray equipment. Other responsibilities include CCTV monitoring, inspecting garbage at the High Security Production Area, evacuations, and parking management.

The Mint offers a number of featured coins. The Terry Fox coin was created to commemorate Terry Fox, a Canadian cancer research activist, athlete, and humanitarian. It is a special $1 circulation coin. The Breast Cancer Coin was created together with the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Foundation and is the second colored circulation coin in the world. The Poppy Coin is, in fact, the first colored circulation coin, issued in 2004. The Year of the Veteran Coin is another special coin which pays tribute to all young and old Canadian veterans for their decades of sacrifice and duty in times of peace and war. Last, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic coins are the first ever coins to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic games.

Among the notable coins produced by the Mint is the V nickel. The design of the nickel is related to the famous V sign of Winston Churchill. A Morse Code inscription was among the novel features of the coin.

A number of foreign coins have been produced by the Canadian Royal Mint, including ready-to-strike blanks, numismatic coins, and circulation coins. In 1970, for example, the Mint won a contract with Singapore for producing 6 million rimmed blanks. Another contract was signed with the Central Bank of Brazil the same year. Some 84 million blanks were manufactured for the fifty centavo piece. The People’s Democratic Republic of Congo requested the manufacturing of 2 million 5 fil pieces in 1971. In 1974, the production facility in Ottawa had manufactured 1.2 domestic and foreign coins, which can be considered a record.

The Royal Canadian Mint has produced some notable foreign coins as well. In 1997, for example, the Mint released a commemorative gold coin that was issued by the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong. It marked the creation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In 1999, the Mint was commissioned to produce a commemorative coin for Macau’s Monetary and Foreign Exchange Authority, recognizing the region’s transfer to the People’s Republic of China. The coin features a gold cameo and is sterling silver.