1910 Canadian Penny

Quick answers

Is the 1910 Canadian Penny rare?

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

How many 1910 Canadian pennies were made?

5,146,487 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1910 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 1910 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 1910 Canadian Penny is round, 25.4 mm across and bronze (95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc).

1910 Canadian Penny by the numbers

In mintage terms the 1910 Canadian Penny ranks 43rd lowest of 151 Canadian cent dates and varieties from 1858 to 2012. The next scarcer is the 1912 Canadian Penny (5.11 million); the next more common is the 1913 Canadian Penny (5.74 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1981 Round Canadian Penny with 1.21 billion, about 235 times as many. The scarcest is the 1858 Canadian Penny with 421,000, 12 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1910 output was 1.3 times the 1909 figure and 1.1 times the 1911 figure.

Over the 1910s the Mint produced 76.2 million cents across 10 dates and varieties; the 1910 Canadian Penny accounts for 6.8% of that.

What to check on your 1910 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.

Edward VII large cents, 1902 to 1910

Queen Victoria died in January 1901 and cents dated 1901 still carry her portrait. Edward VII's effigy arrived on cents dated 1902. George William de Saulles modeled the crowned, robed bust, with the legend EDWARDVS VII DEI GRATIA REX IMPERATOR around it. The coin itself did not change: still 25.4 mm, still 5.67 g of bronze with a maple vine around the date and denomination. If you hold a large cent and the portrait is a bearded king, you are in this short reign.

The big change of the decade was where the coins were made. Canada had relied on London and Birmingham since 1858, but in January 1908 a branch of the Royal Mint opened in Ottawa and from then on Canadian cents were struck at home. The last coins from the Heaton mint are the 1907-H cents, just 800,000 of them, the lowest figure of the reign. You can even see the switch in the records: up to 1907 the published mintages are round numbers, while from 1908 they become exact counts such as 2,401,506.

For most Edward VII dates, mintages run between two and five million, so they are available without much effort in worn condition. The 1907-H is the one to look for. Check below the date for the H, since a 1907 with no mark is the far more common London strike. The 1908, as the first Ottawa cent, gets attention from collectors who like firsts. Edward died in May 1910, but cents dated 1910 still show his portrait. Wear hits the crown, the beard and the leaves first, so judge condition there.

Mintage chart

Specifications