The coins of Elizabeth II were struck from 1953 to 2022, almost seventy years in which four portraits of the queen succeeded one another: by Mary Gillick (1953–1964), Arnold Machin (1965–1989), Dora de Pédery-Hunt (1990–2003), the first portrait by a Canadian sculptor, and Susanna Blunt (from 2003).
The range of denominations was rebuilt over these years. In 1953–1954, while nickel went to the needs of the Korean War, the 5 cents was struck in steel. In 1968 silver left the coinage, and the denominations from 10 cents to the dollar became nickel. The cent turned twelve-sided in 1982 and stopped being struck in 2012. In 1987 the paper dollar was replaced by an eleven-sided coin with a loon by Robert-Ralph Carmichael, the “loonie”, and in 1996 the 2-dollar note gave way to the bimetallic “toonie” with Brent Townsend’s polar bear. Since the 2000s the coins have been made of multi-ply plated steel, since 2006 they carry the mint’s logo, and in 2012 the loonie and toonie moved to steel too, the toonie gaining security features.
Circulating commemoratives have been issued since 1958: dollars for provincial anniversaries, Alex Colville’s animals for the centenary of Confederation in 1967, 25 cents for every province in 1992 and twelve “millennium” coins in 1999. The 25 cents of 2004 with a red poppy is the world’s first coloured circulation coin. Collector coins, from silver dollars since 1971 and the Olympic programme for the Montreal Games to gold, platinum and silver in every kind of series, the Royal Canadian Mint issued by the dozen and by the hundred each year.
