1897 Canadian Penny

Quick answers

Is the 1897 Canadian Penny rare?

It is scarcer than most Canadian pennies. Collectors pay a small premium for good examples.

How many 1897 Canadian pennies were made?

1,500,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1897 Canadian Penny made of?

Bronze (95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc). It weighs 5.67 g and measures 25.4 mm.

Is the 1897 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.

How to recognize it

The 1897 Canadian Penny is round, 25.4 mm across and bronze (95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc).

1897 Canadian Penny by the numbers

By the numbers, the 1897 Canadian Penny ranks 15th lowest of 151 Canadian cent dates and varieties from 1858 to 2012. The next scarcer is the 1887 Canadian Penny (1.5 million); the next more common is the 1924 Canadian Penny (1.59 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1981 Round Canadian Penny with 1.21 billion, about 806 times as many. The scarcest is the 1858 Canadian Penny with 421,000, 3.6 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1897 output was 1.3 times fewer than 1896 and 1.5 times the 1898 figure.

Over the 1890s the Mint produced 14.8 million cents across 10 dates and varieties; the 1897 Canadian Penny accounts for 10% of that.

What to check on your 1897 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.

Victoria large cents of the Dominion, 1876 to 1901

Confederation in 1867 created the Dominion of Canada, but it took nine more years before the new country needed cents of its own, because the province's 1859 stock was still being paid out. The first Dominion cents are dated 1876. They kept the 25.4 mm size and the familiar reverse of ONE CENT and the date in a beaded circle surrounded by a maple vine, but the coin got heavier: 5.67 g, one eightieth of a pound. Victoria now appears older, wearing a diadem, with the legend VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA CANADA.

Canada still had no mint, so the cents came from England. The Royal Mint in London struck most years, while the private Heaton mint in Birmingham handled several orders and marked them with a small H below the date. The H years are 1876, 1881, 1882, 1890, 1898 and 1900 and 1900 was struck at both mints. Production was irregular. There are no cents dated 1877 to 1880, 1883, 1885 or 1889 and yearly mintages swing between one million and about four million.

Start by reading the date and checking for the H, because that pairing identifies the issue. The lowest mintages of the reign are the one million coin years: 1890-H, 1894, 1898-H and 1900 without an H. Those draw a collector premium even when worn. The four million dates such as 1876-H, 1882-H and 1888 are the easiest to find. These coins circulated for decades, so most are smooth. Sharp leaf veins, visible strands of hair and natural brown or red color are what separate a collector's coin from an ordinary one.

Mintage chart

Specifications