The Royal Canadian Mint has the popular saying: “To be the Best Mint in the world…” Their goal for attaining this is quite simple, yet straight to the point: Satisfy the people with innovative products. As a Crown Corporation {meaning that it is owned by the Canadian government} all coinage and products are for profit. This not only includes the manufacturing of coins, but also gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion, as well as medallions and tokens.
During 1858, Canadian coins were struck mostly by the Royal Mint in London-not in Canada. But when the country began to emerge as a nation, they soon realized that they needed to strike coins within their own borders. As a result, in 1901, the Royal Mint commissioned a new branch to be located in Ottawa. On January 2, 1908, The Ottawa Mint officially opened its doors for business. However, thirty years later, The Mint requested independence from London’s Mint, and renamed itself “The Royal Canadian Mint”. Although they still needed the master tools from London in order to make their own coins, the Royal Canadian Mint was now completely under Canada’s control. 1n 1976, a new branch of The Mint was created in Winnipeg after the Ottawa location reached maximum capacity.
So far, it has produced ready-to-strike blanks, bullion, and numismatic coins for nearly every nation in the world, including China, New Zealand and Cuba. Plus, it also has the responsibility and capacity to strike over 2 million coins each year for foreign governments in over 70 different countries around the world! The Royal Canadian Mint is known to have several different coins such as the V nickels (“loonie”/one dollar coins with the famous loon on the back) and the “toonie” coins (two dollar coins). However, the Canadian Maple Leaf coins remain highly popular with investors and collectors much like the American Silver Eagles are. Although these coins are produced in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, the gold Maple Leaf bullion is the most popular due to its unrivalled purity.
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Fun Fact: The Royal Canadian Mint holds the world record for producing the largest coin in the world: the masterpiece 100 kg, 99.999% pure $1 million gold bullion coin.
