1920 Small Canadian Penny
The 1920 Small Canadian Penny is a one-cent coin struck for circulation with 15.5 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1920
- Circulation mintage
- 15,483,923
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Bronze (95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1920 Small Canadian Penny worth?
With 15.5 million made, the 1920 Small Canadian Penny is common. A circulated one is worth face value. The cent is still legal tender even though the Mint stopped issuing it in 2013. Only coins with full original red color, a recognized variety or a genuine error interest collectors.
What would make yours worth more:
- Original red color rather than brown
- Sharp detail in the portrait and leaves
- A recognized variety for the date
- Professional grading for a key date
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1920 Small Canadian Penny rare?
- No. 15.5 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1920 Small Canadian pennies were made?
- 15,483,923 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1920 Small Canadian Penny made of?
- Bronze (95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc). It weighs 3.24 g and measures 19.05 mm.
- Is the 1920 Small 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.
The 1920 penny in context
The small cent arrived in 1920 to replace a coin that had grown too big and too costly. The new cent was 19.05 mm and 3.24 g, close in size to the American cent, which made it familiar to anyone crossing the border and saved a lot of metal. A total of 15,483,923 small cents were struck in the first year, more than twice the number of large cents with the same date.
That big first year mattered later. Along with the 7.6 million cents of 1921, it left the banks well stocked and the mint made very few cents over the next five years. The result is the famous run of low mintages from 1922 to 1926. The 1920 small cent itself is common, but it is the start of a series that kept the same basic look until 1936 and it introduced the two maple leaf reverse that defined the cent for a generation. If you collect small cents by date, this is the natural first coin in the album.
How to recognize it
Bertram Mackennal's crowned bust of George V is on the obverse with the full legend GEORGIVS V DEI GRA: REX ET IND: IMP:. The reverse is completely new: two maple leaves on a single stem, with ONE CENT between them, CANADA above and 1920 below, inside a beaded border. Diameter and weight on the 1920 small cent are the standard 19.05 mm and 3.24 g. Put it next to a large cent and the difference is obvious, since the small coin is barely three quarters as wide. The bronze is 95.5% copper, 3% tin and 1.5% zinc, the same alloy as the large cent, so it tones to the same warm brown with age.
1920 Small Canadian Penny by the numbers
In mintage terms the 1920 Small Canadian Penny ranks 60th lowest of 151 Canadian cent dates and varieties from 1858 to 2012. The next scarcer is the 1918 Canadian Penny (13 million); the next more common is the 1938 Canadian Penny (18.4 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1981 Round Canadian Penny with 1.21 billion, about 78 times as many. The scarcest is the 1858 Canadian Penny with 421,000, 37 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1920 output was 1.4 times the 1919 figure and 2 times the 1921 figure. Other 1920 cents: 1920 Large Canadian Penny (6.76 million).
Over the 1920s the Mint produced 61.7 million cents across 11 dates and varieties; the 1920 Small Canadian Penny accounts for 25% of that.
What to check on your 1920 Small Canadian Penny
- Confirm the variety: small cent. Use a magnifier and compare with a reference picture before you assume you have the scarcer one.
- 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.
At over fifteen million, the 1920 small cent is common and worn coins carry only a small premium for their age. Sharp and uncirculated coins draw more interest and a coin with full red color is a nice find. Its first year status makes it a popular type coin and many collectors pair it with a 1920 large cent. Cleaning strips the natural brown and leaves an unnatural pink or orange surface that collectors avoid. The leaf veins and the crown are the places to judge wear, since they are the highest points on each side.
George V small cents, 1920 to 1936
In 1920 Canada replaced its big copper cent with a much smaller coin: 19.05 mm and 3.24 g, close in size to the cent used across the border. Some large cents dated 1920 were still struck before the change, so both sizes share the date. The small cent kept Mackennal's crowned George V and the corrected legend, but it got a new reverse with two maple leaves on a single stem, ONE CENT between them, CANADA above and the date below. The alloy stayed at 95.5% copper, 3% tin and 1.5% zinc.
The new coin was produced in huge numbers at first: more than fifteen million small cents in 1920 and over seven million in 1921. That left plenty in stock and output collapsed for the next five years. The mintages for 1922 to 1926 run from about one million to two million, with 1923 and 1925 the lowest. Those years are the keys of the whole small cent series. Output recovered in the late 1920s, dipped again to about 2.5 million in 1930 as the Depression set in, then jumped past 21 million in 1932.
George V died in January 1936. Cents dated 1936 still carry his portrait, because Edward VIII's coins were never issued in Canada. Cents dated 1936 with a small dot below the date were struck in early 1937 while dies for George VI were not ready, yet only a few are known today. For anything from 1922 to 1926, check the date with a magnifier, since key dates attract altered coins. Wear shows first on the crown and the leaf veins.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 cent |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1920 |
| Circulation mintage | 15,483,923 |
| Composition | Bronze (95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc) |
| Weight | 3.24 g |
| Diameter | 19.05 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
Other 1920 Canadian pennies
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 1920 Large Canadian Penny | 6,762,247 | Small premium |
Frequently asked questions
When did Canada switch to the small cent?
In 1920. The large cent was struck for part of the year and then replaced by the 19.05 mm small cent, so 1920 is the only date that comes in both sizes. The small one was made in much greater numbers.
Why was the Canadian cent made smaller in 1920?
The large cent used a lot of copper at a time when metal prices had risen. A coin close in size to the American cent saved metal and was easier to carry, so Canada adopted it.
Mintage figures: Penny (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.