Quarter (Canadian coin)

Quarter

Canada
Value	0.25 Canadian dollar
Mass	4.4 g
Diameter	23.88 [1] mm
Thickness	1.58 mm
Edge	Milled
Composition	94% steel, 3.8% Cu, 2.2% Ni plating
Years of minting	1870–present
Catalog number	-
Obverse
Design	Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada
Designer	Susanna Blunt
Design date	2003
Reverse
Design	Caribou
Designer	Emmanuel Hahn
Design date	1937

The quarter, short for quarter dollar, is a Canadian coin worth 25 cents or one-fourth of a Canadian dollar. It is a small, circular coin of silver colour. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official name for the coin is the 25-cent piece, but in practice it is usually called a "quarter", much like its American counterpart. The coin is produced at the Royal Canadian Mint's facility in Winnipeg.

History of Composition

From 1920 until 1967 the quarter contained 0.15 troy ounces of silver -- 1/4 as much as the silver dollar (0.60 ozt), 1/2 as much as the 50 cent piece, and 2.5 times more than the dime.

Commemorative reverses

Ordinarily featuring a caribou,^[2] the quarter has the most commonly altered reverse in Canada, and is the usual venue for commemorative issues.

In 2004, a quarter was issued in honour of Remembrance Day, featuring a corn poppy on the reverse, a traditional symbol in Canada of that day. This resulted in a bizarre international incident, in which American military contractors unfamiliar with the coin's design believed these coins were outfitted with nanotechnology designed for espionage.^[3]

Single commemorative designs

Image	Year	Theme	Artist	Mintage	Notes
	1967	Canada's Centennial	Alex Colville	48,855,500	The reverse featured a Canada lynx.
	1973	100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police	Paul Cedarberg	135,958,589	The reverse depicted a mounted RCMP officer obverse featured Queen Elizabeth II.
	2002	Canadian Maple Leaf	Judith Chartier	30,627,000	1952–2002
	2004	Acadia (Île Ste. Croix)	R.R. Carmichael, Stan Witten	15,400,000	The reverse depicted a 17th-century sailing ship, "La Bonne-Renommée"[4] and the dates 1604–2004.
	2004	Remembrance Day	Cosme Saffioti, Stan Witten	28,500,000	The reverse featured a corn poppy coloured red, the first coloured general circulation coin in the world.
	2005	Alberta Centennial	Michelle Grant	20,640,000
	2005	Saskatchewan Centennial	Paulette Sapergia	19,290,000	The reverse features a western meadowlark.[5]
	2005	Year of the Veteran	Elaine Gobel	29,396,000
	2006	Pink Ribbon	Cosme Saffioti	29,798,000[6]	The second colourized coin in general issue. the coloration is more scratch-resistant.
	2006	Medal of Bravery	RCM Engravers	20,040,000[6]
	2008	Remembrance Day 90th anniversary	Cosme Saffioti, Stan Witten	11,000,000	Re-issue of 2004 design (but with a superior red poppy process & appearance), with '1918 Armistice' added to commemorate 90th anniversary.
	2010	65th anniversary of World War II[7]	Cosme Saffioti	11,000,000	Features a soldier with a bowed head and hands on a rifle in front of a maple leaf. Two coloured poppies are on each side of the soldier.
	2013	100th Anniversary of the Canadian Arctic Expedition[8]	Bonnie Ross	12,500,000	Features two varieties of frosted accents.
	2015	50th Anniversary of the Canadian flag		12,500,000	Features fifty children holding the Flag of Canada. Half issued colourized.
	2017	Canada 150	Joelle Wong		Features a turtle, bird and beaver, all decorated with aboriginal patterns, reach toward a plant growing out from a pair of hands to symbolize how all Canadians are connected in protecting Canada's future. The theme of the coin is "Canada's Future".

125th Anniversary of Confederation

In 1992, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Confederation, the Mint released twelve commemorative coins, one for each Canadian province and territory at the time. These were the inspiration^[9] for the US 50 State Quarters program of 1999–2008. Nunavut, which separated from the Northwest Territories seven years later in 1999, was honoured with a special $2 coin.

Image	Province/territory	Date of Release	Artist	Mintage
	Alberta	1992-06-04 June 4, 1992	Mel Heath	12,133,000
	British Columbia	1992-11-09 November 9, 1992	Carla Egan	14,001,000
	Manitoba	1992-04-07 April 7, 1992	Muriel Hope	11,349,000
	New Brunswick	1992-01-09 January 9, 1992	Ronald Lambert	12,174,000
	Newfoundland and Labrador	1992-03-05 March 5, 1992	Christoper Newhook	11,405,000
	Northwest Territories	1992-02-06 February 6, 1992	Beth McEachen	12,580,000
	Nova Scotia	1992-09-09 September 9, 1992	Bruce Wood	13,600,000
	Ontario	1992-08-06 August 6, 1992	Greg Salmela	14,263,000
	Prince Edward Island	1992-07-07 July 7, 1992	Nigel Roe	13,001,000
	Quebec	1992-10-01 October 1, 1992	Romualdas Bukauskas	13,607,000
	Saskatchewan	1992-11-05 November 5, 1992	Brian Cobb	14,165,000
	Yukon	1992-05-07 May 7, 1992	Libby Dulac	10,388,000

Millennium quarters

In April 1998, the Mint announced the Millennium Coin Design Contest, a contest open to all Canadians to submit designs for twenty-four millennium quarters, one for each month of 1999 and 2000. The 1999 designs were meant to look back on Canada's past, while the 2000 designs looked to the future. While the 1999 coins were labeled with their month of issue, the 2000 coins were labeled with the relevant theme (see below).

Alberta and Saskatchewan Centennial

In 2005, to celebrate the centennials of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, two commemorative quarters were issued. The public was given the opportunity to vote on the coin design through two toll-free phone numbers.

There were four candidate designs for the Alberta quarter: Big Sky Country, Alberta’s Natural Beauty, A Dynamic Century, and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. The winning design was Big Sky Country, by Michelle Grant, and depicted an oil derrick with cattle grazing at its base.^[10] The coin had a mintage of 20,640,000.^[11]

There were three candidate designs for the Saskatchewan quarter: The Western Meadowlark, Canada Geese over Wascana Lake, and The Round Dance Celebration. The winning design was Western Meadowlark, designed by Paulette Sapergia.^[12] The coin's mintage was 19,290,000.

2010 Vancouver Olympics

The Olympic coins do not have the inscription 'D.G. Regina' (Latin for 'By the Grace of God, Queen') making the coins "godless circulating coins". There have been a couple of circulation strike mule coins in this series, including 2007 Paralympic wheelchair curling and 2009 Olympic Alpine Skiing coins. With the medalist coins now called the Olympic moments coins, a very small percentage will be a colorized version.

2011 Legendary Nature

Image	Date of Issue	Animal	Mintage
	January 2012	Wood bison	6,250,000[15]
	January 2012	Wood bison – colourized (green)	6,250,000[15]
	February 2012	Orca	6,250,000[15]
	February 2012	Orca – colourized (blue)	6,250,000[15]
	March 2012	Peregrine falcon	6,250,000[15]
	March 2012	Peregrine falcon – colourized (yellow)	6,250,000[15]

War of 1812 Bicentennial

First strikes

Olympic first strikes

Canada Day

Since 2000, the RCM has been issuing colourized quarters on Canada Day with designs aimed to attract young collectors. As with other collector coins issued by the RCM, the Canada Day series coins are non-circulating legal tender.

Other notable dates

A 1917 quarter featuring King George V

• The 1906 Small Crown is valued in the thousands of dollars even for very poor conditions.
• 1936 marked two valuable variations, the Bar and the Dot, both trend for over $1000 in uncirculated condition.
• The 1951 Low Relief was predominantly only made available in proof-like sets and have a mintage of around 500.
• The 1973 Large Bust is among the most desired Canadian Quarter. They sell for around $300 in Proof Like or Specimen condition, and can sell in the thousands for high end circulation strikes.
• The 1991 quarter had a low mintage, of 459,000
• The 1992 New Brunswick quarter has several rotated die versions, with the 180 degree rotation selling for between $100 and $200 in uncirculated condition.
• 1999 featured mule versions of the September and November quarters. These coins do not have the 25 CENTS mark on them, making them, ironically, legal tender without face value. Either usually sells for over $10 depending on the condition of the coin. The Royal Canadian Mint estimates a combined mintage of 10,000 to 50,000 of the September and November mules.
• The 2000 Millennium Map Mule. Highly sought after by collectors, this is a modern rarity with about 100 known examples, as referenced in population reports of coin certification services (ICCS, CCCS, PCGS, NGC).
• 2000P Caribou: two examples are known to exist. They fetch $40,000 or more (ICCS has graded both in MS-64: ICCS 2010 Population report). Both are in private collections.
• 2000P Creativity: two are known to exist. They fetch $15,000 to $20,000 (ICCS has graded one in MS-62 and the other in MS-66: ICCS 2010 Population report).
• 2000P Community: five are known to exist. They fetch $12,000 to $15,000 (ICCS has graded one in MS-60, two in MS-62, and two in MS-63: ICCS 2010 Population report).

The Tooth Fairy and Friends

Starting in 2011, the mint began selling special sets for newborn babies, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, "Oh Canada" and the Tooth Fairy. The tooth fairy quarters also come packaged separately.^[19]

Facts

• The first commemorative coins were planned for 1927 to celebrate Canada's 60th anniversary. A contest was held and the winner for the twenty-five cent coin was J.A.H. MacDonald; however, the Mint decided to not turn the design into coinage.^[20]
• When coinage was changed in 1937, the caribou (currently on the quarter) was originally planned for the five cent coin, the beaver (nickel) was planned for the ten cent coin, and the Bluenose (dime) was planned for the twenty-five cent coin.^[20]
• The lowest mintage of any circulated quarter post-World War II was in 1991; low mintage was attributed to a work stoppage and using up stock in preparation for the release of the commemorative quarters the following year. The total mintage was a mere 459,000 including collector sets and proofs.^[21]
• Canadian quarters were not issued into circulation in 1997 and 1998. In 1997, only 525,257 quarters were produced. In 1998, only 395,617 quarters were produced; even less than in 1991. All of them were issued in collector sets or proofs and none were issued into circulation.
• The caribou on the 25-cent piece dates back to 1936 when a change in the sovereign's image on circulation currency prompted the Canadian government to modify the designs on the reverse side of coins as well. The caribou design was created by Canadian artist Emanuel Hahn, initially used in 1937. It has been temporarily replaced in some years; in 1967 for the Canadian centennial (with a Canada lynx), in 1973 to celebrate the centennial of the North-West Mounted Police, in 1992 for Canada's 125th anniversary, and in 1999 and 2000 by the winning designs of the Millennium coin program.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quarter (Canadian coin).

• Royal Canadian Mint Act
• Coins and Canada Price Guide
• Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
• Royal Canadian Mint Remembrance Day Poppy Coin

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