1859 Canadian Penny
The 1859 Canadian Penny is a one-cent coin struck for circulation with 9.58 million made. Value band: small premium. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1859
- Circulation mintage
- 9,579,000
- Value band
- Small premium
- Composition
- Bronze (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1859 Canadian Penny worth?
A large cent from 1859 is old enough that collectors want it in any condition. Worn, dark coins bring a small premium; coins with clear detail in the hair and leaves bring much more. Any with original red color are in a class of their own.
What would make yours worth more:
- Original red color rather than brown
- Sharp detail in the portrait and leaves
- 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 1859 Canadian Penny rare?
- It is scarcer than most Canadian pennies. Collectors pay a small premium for good examples.
- How many 1859 Canadian pennies were made?
- 9,579,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1859 Canadian Penny made of?
- Bronze (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc). It weighs 4.54 g and measures 25.4 mm.
- Is the 1859 Canadian Penny still legal tender?
- Yes. The Royal Canadian Mint stopped distributing cents in 2013, but they remain legal tender. Cash payments are rounded to the nearest five cents, so most pennies now sit in jars or go to banks.
The 1859 penny in context
Most of the Province of Canada's first cents carry this date. Of the ten million coins ordered from the Royal Mint, 9,579,000 were dated 1859, a huge number for a colony that was only just getting used to decimal money. People were slow to warm to the new coins while supply ran far ahead of demand and much of the order simply sat in storage.
That surplus shaped the next seventeen years. Banks and the government still held 1859 cents long after the province joined Confederation in 1867, so the new Dominion did not order cents of its own until 1876. It also explains why an 1859 is the Victorian cent you are most likely to find in an old family jar. Specialists go further and sort these coins by small differences in the final 9, including pieces where traces of an earlier 8 show under it. For most finders, though, the date alone tells the story: this is the common provincial cent and a fine way to hold a coin from Canada's first decimal issue.
How to recognize it
Apart from the date, the 1859 matches the 1858. Victoria's young laureate head faces left, ringed by VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA with CANADA beneath the neck. The reverse frames ONE CENT and 1859 in a beaded circle with a vine of maple leaves running around the rim. Size is 25.4 mm and weight 4.54 g, noticeably lighter than the Dominion cents of 1876 to 1920 at 5.67 g even though the diameter is the same. A kitchen scale that reads to a tenth of a gram can settle which issue you have if the legend is too worn to read.
1859 Canadian Penny by the numbers
In mintage terms the 1859 Canadian Penny ranks 51st lowest of 151 Canadian cent dates and varieties from 1858 to 2012. The next scarcer is the 1928 Canadian Penny (9.14 million); the next more common is the 2007 Non-Magnetic Canadian Penny (9.63 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1981 Round Canadian Penny with 1.21 billion, about 126 times as many. The scarcest is the 1858 Canadian Penny with 421,000, 23 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1859 output was 23 times the 1858 figure and 2.4 times the 1876 figure.
What to check on your 1859 Canadian Penny
- Check the color. Collectors describe copper cents as red, red-brown or brown; original red color is worth far more than toned or dull surfaces.
- Never clean it. Rubbing, polishing or dipping leaves fine scratches and an unnatural color that collectors spot at once.
- Look at the high points of the portrait and the lettering. Wear there sets the grade. The grade in turn drives the value of older cents.
With nearly ten million struck, the 1859 is by far the commoner of the two provincial dates. Worn examples carry a small premium simply for their age, while crisp brown coins with full leaf veins earn a collector premium. Look out for fine cleaning scratches and for verdigris, the green crust bronze grows in damp storage. Both lower interest. Variety hunters study the final 9 under magnification, since the different 9 punches and the overdate draw extra attention. If yours shows anything odd in that digit, compare it with clear photos in a specialist catalog before deciding what you have.
Province of Canada cents, 1858 to 1859
Canada's cents begin with the Province of Canada, the union of what are now southern Ontario and Quebec. In 1858 the province moved its accounts from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents, so it needed coins to match. Silver 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces were ordered from the Royal Mint in London, along with a bronze cent for everyday change. Leonard Charles Wyon engraved a young Queen Victoria with a laurel wreath in her hair, framed by VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA with CANADA under the bust. The reverse set ONE CENT and the date inside a beaded circle wrapped in a vine of maple leaves.
The cent was built around a tidy figure: it weighed one hundredth of a pound, 4.54 g, on a 25.4 mm flan. The order was also far bigger than the province could use. Ten million coins were struck, just 421,000 of them dated 1858 and the rest 1859. People used to British coppers and local tokens were slow to accept them. Banks and the government sat on unissued stock for years. That surplus is why no more cents were struck for the province and it kept the young Dominion supplied until it finally ordered its own cents in 1876.
Only two dates belong to this group, so the date tells you almost everything. The 1858 is the scarce one by a wide margin, while the 1859 turns up regularly in old accumulations. To be sure you have a provincial cent and not a later Dominion one, look for the laurel leaves in Victoria's hair; cents from 1876 onward show an older queen wearing a diadem and weigh more. Wear shows first on the hair and the leaf veins. Even brown color is normal; a bright pink surface usually means cleaning.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 cent |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1859 |
| Circulation mintage | 9,579,000 |
| Composition | Bronze (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) |
| Weight | 4.54 g |
| Diameter | 25.4 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
Frequently asked questions
Is the 1859 Canadian cent rare?
Not in general. With 9,579,000 struck it is over twenty times more plentiful than the 1858. Ordinary worn pieces bring a small premium for their age, while sharp examples and recognized varieties of the 9 draw stronger collector interest.
Why does an 1859 cent look different from later Victorian cents?
It was issued by the Province of Canada before Confederation, with a young laureate portrait and a 4.54 g weight. Dominion cents from 1876 show an older Victoria wearing a diadem and weigh 5.67 g, though both are 25.4 mm across.
Mintage figures: Penny (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.