1889 Canadian Nickel
The 1889 Canadian Nickel is a Canadian nickel struck for circulation with 1.2 million made. Value band: metal value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1889
- Circulation mintage
- 1,200,000
- Value band
- Metal value
- Composition
- Sterling silver (92.5% silver)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1889 Canadian Nickel worth?
The 1889 Canadian Nickel is a silver coin with 0.0345 troy ounces of pure silver, so its floor is its metal value: 0.0345 times the day's silver spot price. With 1.2 million made, worn examples trade for about their silver; collectors pay more for sharp, original coins and much more for uncirculated ones with full luster.
What would make yours worth more:
- Sharp detail with original luster
- A recognized variety for the date
- Professional grading for a key date
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1889 Canadian Nickel rare?
- Not by mintage. 1.2 million were made, but it is silver, so even worn examples are worth their metal value rather than face value.
- How many 1889 Canadian nickels were made?
- 1,200,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1889 Canadian Nickel made of?
- Sterling silver (92.5% silver). It weighs 1.16 g and measures 15.5 mm.
- Is the 1889 Canadian Nickel still legal tender?
- Yes. Canadian 5-cent coins are legal tender, but a silver one is worth more for its metal than its face value.
The 1889 nickel in context
The 1889 sits in the steadiest stretch of Victorian five cents. From 1885 to 1889 the Royal Mint in London supplied every order and the totals stayed between half a million and 1.7 million. For 1889 the mint struck 1,200,000 coins, a little more than the 1,000,000 of 1888 and the 1,000,000 that Heaton would supply in 1890. Canada's population was spreading west and the steady orders of these years reflect a country that needed its change to keep pace.
It was also the last London date of the decade. When the next order came in 1890 the work went to Birmingham and those coins carry an H. Because the 1889 has no mint mark, it represents the end of a run of London strikings that would only resume in 1891. For anyone building a set by mint as well as date, that makes it a useful marker in the sequence. Survivors tend to be well worn from decades of circulation. Specialists who collect by mint therefore see 1889 as the closing London coin before Birmingham's last Victorian order.
How to recognize it
Victoria is shown crowned, with VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA CANADA around the portrait. The reverse has 5 CENTS above the date in a ring of maple leaves under a crown and there is no H below it. The coin is sterling silver, about 1.16 g and very small. On a well preserved example the queen's hair and the jewels of the crown show sharply and the veins on each maple leaf are clear. Those are the first places to lose detail. No date varieties are recorded in the mintage notes, so the main thing to check is the condition of the portrait and wreath.
1889 Canadian Nickel by the numbers
In mintage terms the 1889 Canadian Nickel ranks 17th lowest of 161 Canadian nickel dates and varieties from 1858 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1915 Canadian Nickel (1.17 million); the next more common is the 1908 Canadian Nickel (1.22 million).
For scale, the most common is the 2008 Canadian Nickel with 278.5 million, about 232 times as many. The scarcest is the 1884 Canadian Nickel with 200,000, 6 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1889 output was 1.2 times the 1888 figure and 1.2 times the 1890 figure.
Over the 1880s the Mint produced 11.7 million five cent coins across 10 dates and varieties; the 1889 Canadian Nickel accounts for 10% of that.
What to check on your 1889 Canadian Nickel
- Check the date first: silver Canadian nickels carry dates from 1858 to 1921; this one has 0.0345 troy oz. Silver coins are not magnetic and ring clearly when dropped on a hard surface.
- Never clean it. Rubbing or polishing leaves fine scratches that collectors spot at once and that cut the value of silver dates sharply.
- Look at the high points of the portrait and the design. Wear there sets the grade. The grade in turn drives the value of older five cent coins.
The 1889 is not one of the famous low mintage dates, but it is not one of the big ones either. Circulated coins carry a small premium over common dates because all Victorian silver is now hard to find in decent shape. Look for even wear, no holes and no bright cleaned surfaces. A coin that still shows the leaf veins is a good example of the year. An 1889 with clear crown jewels and leaf veins makes a much better set coin than a smooth one.
Queen Victoria silver five cents (1858 to 1901)
Canada's five cent piece started life as a tiny silver coin. In 1858 the Province of Canada moved its accounts from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents, so it ordered new coins from the Royal Mint in London: a bronze cent plus silver 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces. The 5 cent weighed about 1.16 g of sterling (.925) silver and was barely bigger than a fingernail. Leonard Charles Wyon engraved a young laureate Victoria for the first issue. After Confederation the Dominion placed its own orders from 1870, now with a crowned portrait of the queen.
Canada had no mint of its own, so every one of these coins came from England. London struck most years, while Ralph Heaton & Sons of Birmingham filled several orders and marked them with a small H on the reverse. The reverse barely changed in more than forty years: 5 CENTS and the date inside a wreath of maple leaves with a crown on top. Production came in bursts. Nothing was dated 1859 to 1869, 1873, 1876 to 1879 or 1895 and yearly totals swing from 200,000 to 3,000,000.
Start with the date and check for an H, since the pair identifies the issue. The low mintage years are the ones to hope for: 1884 above all, then 1887, 1894 and 1898, with 1875-H scarcer than its total suggests. These coins were easy to lose and were often holed or made into jewelry, which is part of why decent survivors are hard to find. On a worn piece the hair detail and the leaf veins go first. Collectors also hunt small date varieties, such as overdates and different sizes of numeral, recorded in the mintage notes.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 5 cents |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1889 |
| Circulation mintage | 1,200,000 |
| Composition | Sterling silver (92.5% silver) |
| Weight | 1.16 g |
| Diameter | 15.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Reeded |
Frequently asked questions
Where was the 1889 five cents made?
At the Royal Mint in London. That is why it has no mint mark. Canada had no mint of its own until 1908, so every coin was made in England either in London or at Heaton's mint in Birmingham.
Why do so many 1889 coins look smooth?
These little silver coins stayed in circulation for decades and silver is soft. Constant handling wore away the hair, crown and leaf detail. A coin with that detail still visible is far more appealing to collectors.
Mintage figures: Nickel (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.