The Ottawa Mint
Filed Under Currency Trading |
Prior to the establishment of the Ottawa Mint in 1908 (a branch of the Royal Mint under the Imperial Coinage Act of 1870), coins used in Canada were minted in the United Kingdom. The first gold coins minted in Canada were sovereigns, identical to those produced in the United Kingdom except for a small identifying “C.” It was not until May 1912 that the Ottawa Mint began to produce limited quantities of gold $5 and $10 coins for currency trading. The Ottawa Mint became the Royal Canadian Mint in 1931.
The Mint prints all the money for Canada as directed by the Bank of Canada, which is loosely and unofficially controlled by the Federal government under it’s section 92 (of the Constitution) powers. The mint then issues currency to the major banks as a ‘loan’. There are four major banks in Canada, The Royal Bank, Scotia Bank, The Bank of Montreal, and The Toronto Dominion Bank.
When the mint prints money it is called ‘expanding’ the currency. This means that there is more actual money, but in theory at least it should all be worth the same amount. This is because money has value based on the ‘reserves’ of Canada. That is the resources of Canada and the foreign currency holdings of Canada.
The mint produces typically coins with values of 0.01 (pennies), 0.05 (nickels), 0.1 (dimes), 0.25 (quarters), (dollars), and 2 (twoonies). The balls that are made are 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dominations. $1000 bills are also made but are less usual. Quarters are often made for special commemorative occasions. I have a set of quarters up in my closet with each one representing a province, and a dollar for the federal government.
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By N2H