1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny
The 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny is a one-cent coin struck for circulation with 67.8 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1953
- Circulation mintage
- 67,806,016
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Bronze (98% copper, 0.5% 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 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny worth?
With 67.8 million made, the 1953 No Shoulder Fold 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 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny rare?
- No. 67.8 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian pennies were made?
- 67,806,016 were struck for circulation (a combined figure for the No Shoulder Fold and Shoulder Fold varieties).
- What is the 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny made of?
- Bronze (98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc). It weighs 3.24 g and measures 19.05 mm.
- Is the 1953 No Shoulder Fold 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 1953 penny in context
Elizabeth II's first Canadian cents are dated 1953, the year of her coronation. Mary Gillick's portrait shows the young queen with a laurel wreath in her hair and on the earliest dies her gown runs smoothly over the shoulder with no fold line at all. Collectors call this the no shoulder fold version. It was struck alongside the revised shoulder fold design that year and the published figure of 67,806,016 covers both.
The first dies had a problem. The portrait was cut in high relief, which made it hard to strike cleanly. The legend and rim beads often came out weak. The mint revised the master during the year, lowering the relief and adding a fold line on the gown, which is why 1953 coins come in two versions. The no shoulder fold coin is the original, the portrait as first released to the public. It matters to collectors mainly because of what came later: a leftover die of this type was used again in 1955, producing one of the best known modern Canadian varieties. Knowing what a genuine 1953 no shoulder fold looks like is the best preparation for spotting that 1955 coin.
How to recognize it
Gillick's laureate portrait faces right, with ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA around it. The reverse is George Kruger Gray's maple twig with two leaves, CANADA, 1 CENT and the date 1953. The 1953 no shoulder fold cent keeps the small cent standard of 19.05 mm and 3.24 g. To identify the variety, look at the queen's shoulder where the gown meets the lower edge of the bust. On this version the surface is smooth, with no raised line crossing it. Use a magnifier and light from the side, since a weak strike or wear can make a fold coin look plain. The legend on early strikes is often soft, which is another hint.
1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny by the numbers
The published 67,806,016 for 1953 covers both the No Shoulder Fold and Shoulder Fold varieties together, so neither can be ranked on its own. As a date, 1953 sits 80th lowest among Canadian penny dates by output.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1953 output was about the same as 1952 and 3.1 times the 1954 figure. Other 1953 cents: 1953 Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny.
Over the 1950s the Mint produced 677.2 million cents across 10 dates and varieties; the 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny accounts for 10% of that.
What to check on your 1953 No Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny
- Confirm the variety: no shoulder fold. 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.
Both 1953 versions share a very large mintage, so worn coins are close to face value whichever one you have. Interest centers on uncirculated coins with full red color and on correctly attributed examples, since date and variety collectors need both. Sharp strikes of this first version are harder to find than weak ones because of the relief problem. A coin with a clear legend and strong rim beads is the one to keep. If you are serious about the variety, a grading service will note it on the holder, which removes any argument about the shoulder.
Elizabeth II laureate portrait, 1953 to 1964
Elizabeth II's first Canadian portrait, by Mary Gillick, shows a young queen with a laurel wreath in her hair and no crown, with the legend ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA. Kruger Gray's maple twig reverse carried on unchanged. The coin itself stayed at 19.05 mm and 3.24 g in the wartime alloy of 98% copper, 0.5% tin and 1.5% zinc. The portrait was first cut in high relief, which turned out to cause problems at the mint.
The first 1953 dies did not strike cleanly, with weak detail in the legend and around the rim. The mint revised the master and the easiest way to tell the versions apart is the gown: the revised portrait shows a clear fold line running across the shoulder, while the original has none. Both appear on 1953 cents under one published mintage. In 1955 an old die without the fold was used again, producing the scarce 1955 no shoulder fold cent. Mintages climbed steadily through the decade, passing 100 million in 1957 and reaching about 485 million in 1964.
The shoulder is the thing to check on any 1953 or 1955 cent. Use a magnifier and good light and look at the line of the gown just above the bust's lower edge. Heavy wear can erase a weak fold, so judge varieties on reasonably sharp coins. Apart from those, the dates here are common, though 1954 had a much smaller run of about 22 million. Mint state red coins from this era are easy to find, so worn examples of regular dates are face value coins.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 cent |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1953 |
| Circulation mintage | 67,806,016 (with the Shoulder Fold variety) |
| Composition | Bronze (98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc) |
| Weight | 3.24 g |
| Diameter | 19.05 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
Other 1953 Canadian pennies
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 Shoulder Fold Canadian Penny | 67,806,016 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
What does no shoulder fold mean on a 1953 cent?
It describes the original version of Mary Gillick's portrait, where the queen's gown has no fold line across the shoulder. A revised version with a visible fold was introduced during 1953, so both exist for that year.
How many 1953 no shoulder fold cents were made?
There is no separate figure. The records give 67,806,016 for all 1953 cents, covering both the no shoulder fold and shoulder fold versions together, so the split between them is unknown.
Mintage figures: Penny (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.