Award Winning Coins

Best Commemorative Silver Coin

2025 Mint Directors Conference Coin Awards

Product: 2024 $50 Pure Silver Coin – Year of the Dragon

The Royal Canadian Mint again raised the bar in the world of extreme relief by launching the 2024 $50 Fine Silver Coin – Year of the Dragon, a first-ever coin dramatically defining a design in Extraordinarily High Relief (EHR) on both its obverse and reverse. This bold innovation by the Mint’s Research and Development team enhanced the relief of artist Simon Ng’s dragon design to an impressive height of 4.7 mm on the reverse, and created a rear view of the same dragon in an equally enhanced obverse relief.

2024 Best New Commemorative or Test Circulating Coin

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Product: 25-cent double-coloured circulation coin celebrating the 50ᵗʰ anniversary of the Central Bank of The Bahamas

In celebration of the 50ᵗʰ anniversary of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, the Royal Canadian Mint produced the world’s first commemorative circulation coin with double-sided colour.  The Mint applied its proprietary colour pad-printing to a ground-breaking coin that features a coloured reverse and obverse. This innovative use of technology enhanced the commemoration of a historical milestone and created exciting new opportunities for the public to engage and interact with coins.

2024 Best new coin product, process or manufacturing innovation

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Process: Environmentally responsible process for plating bronze-coloured circulation coins

A new electroplating process developed by the Royal Canadian Mint is transforming the manufacturing of bronze plated circulation products, and protecting employee health and safety, by eliminating the use of cyanide required in traditional plating.  The Mint’s innovative chemistry safely and reliably produces plated materials for both bronze mono-colour coins, as well as bi- or tri-metallic coins typically used for higher denominations.

Most Inspirational Coin

41st Coin of the Year Awards (2024)

Product: 2023 Pure Silver Coin – Allegory of Peace

The Mint’s R+D Team devised an innovative reverse and obverse for the 2023 Pure Silver Coin – Allegory of Peace, by suspending a three-dimensional winged figure of Peace within the coin’s outer ring.  The absence of a field surrounding the miniature sculpture of Peace allows it to be viewed from both the sides of the coin. The gold-plated figure, symbolizing Canada’s longstanding commitment to peace, is flanked by an outer ring crafted in pure silver with an antique finish, featuring a motif composed of doves carrying an arrangement of olive and maple leaf branches.

2023 Best New Circulating Coin or Coin Series

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Product: Black Nickel-Plated $2 Circulation Coin Honouring Queen Elizabeth II

To honour the late Queen Elizabeth II following her passing after 70 years as Canada’s Monarch, the Royal Canadian Mint added an innovative black nickel-plating to the outer ring of its 2022-dated $2 bi-metallic circulation coin. This world-first technology, applied as a way to evoke the appearance of a mourning armband, captured the hearts and minds of Canadians who flocked to public coin exchanges to collect this unique piece of Canadian royal history.

Most Innovative Coin

40ᵗʰ Coin of the Year Awards (2023)

Product: 2022 5 oz. Pure Silver Coin – Canadian Ghost Ship

The Mint applied its proprietary black light-activated colour technology to vividly bring to life artist Neil Hamelin’s illustration of the tale of the ghost ship, a haunting apparition of a three-masted ship whose sails appear to be ablaze. Fishermen of old on Canada’s east coast claim to have seen the vision and set out to sea to attempt rescue, only to have the mysterious ship suddenly vanish. The glowing image of the ghost ship, emerging before fishermen setting out in a dory on a stormy night, is revealed when a black light is shined on the reverse.

Best Coin Design Silver Medal

CoinWeek Coin Design Awards

Product: 2023 Fine Silver Puzzle Coin Set - The Celestial Circle

Designed by Ts’msyen artist Morgan Asoyuf, the assembled puzzle pieces of this gold-plated fine silver coin depict the celestial circle, which permeates all aspects of life on the Northwest Coast, home to the Ts’msyen Nation.

In the artist’s own words: “Working with the design ideas of gold and matte black colours, I immediately thought of the sun and moon, and the way celestial bodies have influenced Northwest Coast culture through tales of the heavens and supernatural beings. I wanted a visual design that shows the way the sun and moon are interconnected, as well as an ancestor-descendant relationship with the coastal animals”.

2023 Best Crown

Coin of the Year Award

Coin: 2021 $20 Fine Silver Coin - Black and Gold: The Grey Wolf

Artist Claude Thivierge captured the feared and admired personality of a top Canadian predator in a yin and yang portrayal, rendered in contrasting gold and black rhodium plating. Though human encroachment has reduced its habitat, the majestic grey wolf still thrives in hierarchical packs of six or eight animals in less settled parts of Canada, from Labrador to British Columbia, as well as Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

2023 Best Circulation Coin

Coin of the Year Award

Coin: 2021 Ten-Cent Coloured Commemorative Circulation Coin – 100^th Anniversary of Bluenose

Bluenose’s 100^th anniversary in 2021 gave the Mint the opportunity to celebrate in style with the help of Nova Scotia marine artist Yves Bérubé who re-imagined the Bluenose design that had graced Canada’s 10-cent circulation coin since 1937. It was also the very first time we added colour to our smallest circulating coin.

A peerless maritime icon built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Bluenose was a hard-working fishing schooner whose racing proficiency in the International Fishermen’s Race was unrivalled for nearly two decades. It remains, to this day, a testament to the ingenuity, craftsmanship and exceptional skill of the Canadians who designed, built and crewed it.

2022 Best New Commemorative or Test Circulating Coin

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Product: Barbados $1 Glow-in-the-Dark “Flying Fish” Circulation Coin

The Royal Canadian Mint produced the 2022 Barbados $1 Glow-in-the-Dark Flying Fish circulation coin for the Central Bank of Barbados. Issued in honour of Bajan front-line workers who helped the nation overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, this pad-printed colour circulation coin was enhanced with the Mint’s proprietary photo-luminescent technology. This application symbolized the light of hope breaking through the shadow of adversity. This was the first-ever application of the Mint’s glow-in-the-dark colour technology on a non-Canadian coin.

2019 Best New Coin Product, Feature or Distribution Innovation

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Category: Best New Coin Innovation

In launching a new line "R+D Lab" coins featuring experimental innovations, we introduced a tri‑metal token that consists of a brass plated steel ring, with an inner core of nickel plated steel and copper‑plated steel on the opposite side. With a complex arrangement of multiple materials, this token combines the most advanced overt and covert security features, including differentiated electromagnetic signatures in vending equipment.

2018 Most Inspirational Coin

Krause Publications Coin of the Year Awards

Coin: 2016 $20 Pure Silver Coin – Mother Earth

Designed by Canadian artist Alexandra Lefort, this 99.99% pure silver coin features a 3D droplet with an inset full‑colour image of Earth, conveying the importance of water to all life on this planet. The space around the water droplet brings the design's focus to Canada. The diverse fauna and flora flourishing on our land, in our sky, and in our waters are delicately engraved around the water droplet.

2017 Best New Communications Program (Circulating Coins)

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Coin: Canada 150 Commemorative Circulation Coins

In 2015, we launched a national contest inviting the public to create new designs for a 2017 circulation coin series celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary from five theme perspectives: Our Wonders, Our Character, Our Achievements, Our Passions, and Canada's Future. After Canadians cast over one million online votes, five individual winners were selected. Each 2017‑dated circulation coin denomination featured one of their designs. The coins entered circulation in May 2017 and we used this national celebration to launch the world's first glow‑in‑the‑dark circulation coin to bring to life the northern lights design of three million two‑dollar coins.

2017 Most Historically Significant Coin

Krause Publications Coin of the Year Awards

Coin: 2015 1 oz. Pure Silver Coin – 100th Anniversary of In Flanders Fields

Designed by Canadian artist Laurie McGaw, the reverse of this silver coin evokes the opening lines of John McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields: "In Flanders fields the poppies blow; Between the crosses, row on row; That mark our place…". With his helmet removed and head bent in mourning, a lone Canadian soldier stands before a makeshift gravesite for fellow soldiers who were killed in battle. Their final resting place in the Belgian fields near the Ypres salient inspired McCrae's haunting poem that gave birth to the annual Remembrance Day tradition, observed across Canada every November 11.

2017 Best Silver Coin

Gold Chervonets Magazine Coin Constellation Awards

Coin: 2016 Five Kilogram Pure Silver Coin – Charles Edenshaw: Argillite Chest

Working in consultation with Haida artist James Hart, our engravers painstakingly recreated the central panel of a historic argillite box carved by Charles Edenshaw in 1882 in five kilograms of 99.99% pure silver. The reverse design features a lion with a human‑like nose and chin. Two hands flank the face, which appears to emerge from a cave. The intricate background contains a wealth of Haida forms, as well as detailed negative space cross‑hatching—all characteristic of Edenshaw's work.

2016 Best Crown Coin

Krause Publications Coin of the Year Awards

Coin: 2014 1 oz. Pure Silver Coin – Maple Canopy: Autumn Allure

This coloured silver coin designed by artist Emily Damstra is a breathtaking perspective of maple trees in their autumn splendor. The dynamic illustration begins at the base of three trees and leads the eye upwards towards the magnificent canopies which are enhanced in vivid hues of orange, yellow and gold. A branch in the foreground provides the added perspective to bring the maple leaf's distinctive shape into view.

2015 Best New Commemorative or Test Circulating Coin

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Coin: 50‑Cent 100th Aniversary of Anzac Commemorative Circulation Coin (New Zealand)

Produced by us for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and NZ Post, this coin was the first in the world to feature the our new high‑speed pad‑printed colouring technology. Commemorating the founding of the joint Army corps formed by New Zealand and Australia during the First World War, it features two soldiers standing back to back, with heads bowed in remembrance of their fallen comrades. A hammerhead shark motif and a silver fern are painted in intricate detail that could never have been possible before we developed this technology for colouring circulation coins.

2015 Most Inspirational Coin

Krause Publications Coin of the Year Awards

Coin: 2013 $3 Pure Silver Coin – Fishing

Designed by Canadian artist John Mantha, this 99.99% pure silver coin depicts an idyllic scene of a father and child sitting on a dock with their fishing line bobbing in the water as they and their loyal dog calmly wait for the fish to bite. This iconic vision of Canadian summers is brought into beautiful contrast by the delicate frosting of the central design over a mirror‑like proof background.

2014 Most Innovative Coin

Krause Publications Coin of the Year Awards

Coin: 2012 25‑Cent Prehistoric Animals – Pachyrhinosaurus Lakustai

A global phenomenon when it launched in March 2012, this cupro‑nickel collector coin was the world's first‑ever photo‑luminescent coin. Based on the discovery of a new species of dinosaur from a fossil found in the province of Alberta, a painted image of a living Pachyrhinosaurus Lakustai on a cupronickel coin cleverly disguised the skeleton of this prehistoric animal which brightly glowed only once the coin was placed in darkness. Subsequent releases in this "glow‑in‑the‑dark" series have all rapidly sold out.

2013 Best New Coin Innovation

Excellence in Currency Awards by the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA)

Category: Best New Coin Innovation

Coin: Multi‑ply plated steel $1 and $2 circulation coins

We developed visible and covert security features for our new generation of $1 and $2 circulation coins. These include a laser mark micro‑engraving on the reverse (or tails side) of both coins and Digital Non‑destructive Activation (DNA) technology, by which the surface structure of each coin can be read like a fingerprint and checked against a database of all $1 and $2 coins produced by us since 2012. The $2 circulation coin also features a shifting virtual image on its reverse, as well as edge‑lettering.