1988 Canadian Penny

Quick answers

Is the 1988 Canadian Penny rare?

No. 482.7 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.

How many 1988 Canadian pennies were made?

482,676,752 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1988 Canadian Penny made of?

Bronze (98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc). It weighs 2.5 g and measures 19.1 mm, with a 12-sided shape.

Is the 1988 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 1988 Canadian Penny is 12-sided, 19.1 mm across and bronze (98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc).

1988 Canadian Penny by the numbers

In mintage terms the 1988 Canadian Penny ranks 117th lowest of 151 Canadian cent dates and varieties from 1858 to 2012. The next scarcer is the 1973 Canadian Penny (457.1 million); the next more common is the 1964 Canadian Penny (484.7 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1981 Round Canadian Penny with 1.21 billion, about 2.5 times as many. The scarcest is the 1858 Canadian Penny with 421,000, 1147 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1988 output was 1.6 times fewer than 1987 and 2.2 times fewer than 1989.

Over the 1980s the Mint produced 8.69 billion cents across 10 dates and varieties; the 1988 Canadian Penny accounts for 5.6% of that.

What to check on your 1988 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.

Tiara portrait, centennial dove and 12-sided cents, 1965 to 1989

In 1965 Arnold Machin's portrait replaced Gillick's. The queen now wears a tiara and the legend is shortened to ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA. The first year produced well known varieties: the beads around the rim come in large and small sizes and specialists also sort the date by a pointed or blunt 5. For 1967 alone, Canada's centennial, Alex Colville's rock dove in flight replaced the maple twig, with the dates 1867 and 1967. The twig returned in 1968.

The cent changed physically several times in this period as copper prices rose. In 1978 the alloy became 98% copper, 1.75% tin and 0.25% zinc. In 1980 the coin was made thinner, dropping from 3.24 g to 2.8 g. In 1982 it became 12-sided at 2.5 g, a shape that also makes the cent easy to tell apart by touch. Production reached levels never seen before: 1981 topped 1.2 billion coins, the highest cent mintage in Canadian records. Most years of the 1970s and 1980s ran well into the hundreds of millions.

Nearly every coin in this group is common, so the interesting ones are about design and variety. Check 1965 coins for bead size, keep 1967 doves aside as a one year design and notice the shape: round to 1981, 12-sided from 1982. Weight helps with 1979 to 1981, since the lighter 1980 and 1981 coins are thinner. Worn coins are face value. Bright red uncirculated coins draw a small premium at most and the strongest interest goes to recognized varieties.

Mintage chart

Specifications