1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny
The 1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny is a one-cent coin struck for circulation with 304.4 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1965
- Circulation mintage
- 304,441,082
- 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 1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny worth?
With 304.4 million made, the 1965 Small Beads 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:
- Full original red color
- A recognized variety or a genuine mint error
- Coins from a specimen or proof set
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny rare?
- No. 304.4 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1965 Small Beads Canadian pennies were made?
- 304,441,082 were struck for circulation (a combined figure for the Small Beads and Large Beads varieties).
- What is the 1965 Small Beads 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 1965 Small Beads 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 1965 penny in context
When Arnold Machin's tiara portrait replaced Gillick's laureate design in 1965, the cent dies went through changes during the year. One version has small beads in the ring around the rim, the other large beads. Both carry the new legend ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA and both share the published 1965 mintage of 304,441,082. The small beads coins are one half of a variety pair that collectors sort with a magnifier.
Specialists divide the small beads coins further by the shape of the 5 in the date, which can be pointed or blunt, giving two small beads combinations alongside the two large beads ones. The small beads coins are not the scarce version of the year, but they are needed for a complete set of 1965 varieties and many collectors enjoy sorting a handful of 1965 cents to see what they have. The year itself was a busy one for the mint, with production climbing quickly. Together with 1966, it is one of only two years in which Machin's portrait was paired with the maple twig before the centennial dove appeared.
How to recognize it
Arnold Machin's portrait of the queen wearing a tiara faces right, framed by ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA. The reverse of the 1965 small beads cent is Kruger Gray's maple twig with CANADA, 1 CENT and the date. The coin is 19.05 mm and weighs 3.24 g. On the small beads variety, the beads in the ring around the rim are noticeably finer. The surest method is to put your coin beside a large beads example or good reference photos and compare. Then check the 5 in the date against pictures of the pointed and blunt versions. Bright light from one side shows both features best on a coin of this size.
1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny by the numbers
The published 304,441,082 for 1965 covers both the Small Beads and Large Beads varieties together, so neither can be ranked on its own. As a date, 1965 sits 105th lowest among Canadian penny dates by output.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1965 output was 1.6 times fewer than 1964 and 1.7 times the 1966 figure. Other 1965 cents: 1965 Large Beads Canadian Penny.
Over the 1960s the Mint produced 2.71 billion cents across 10 dates and varieties; the 1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny accounts for 11% of that.
What to check on your 1965 Small Beads Canadian Penny
- Confirm the variety: small beads. 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.
Worn 1965 small beads cents are face value. Uncirculated red coins draw a small premium and correctly attributed varieties attract specialists who collect all four 1965 combinations. Since bead size is easier to judge on a sharp coin, uncirculated examples are the best for attribution. If you are building a 1965 set, keep each variety in a labeled holder so the combinations don't get mixed up later. The small beads coins are a good place to learn the difference, since they are easy to find and give you a reference for the rarer pieces.
Tiara portrait, centennial dove and 12-sided cents, 1965 to 1989
In 1965 Arnold Machin's portrait replaced Gillick's. The queen now wears a tiara and the legend is shortened to ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA. The first year produced well known varieties: the beads around the rim come in large and small sizes and specialists also sort the date by a pointed or blunt 5. For 1967 alone, Canada's centennial, Alex Colville's rock dove in flight replaced the maple twig, with the dates 1867 and 1967. The twig returned in 1968.
The cent changed physically several times in this period as copper prices rose. In 1978 the alloy became 98% copper, 1.75% tin and 0.25% zinc. In 1980 the coin was made thinner, dropping from 3.24 g to 2.8 g. In 1982 it became 12-sided at 2.5 g, a shape that also makes the cent easy to tell apart by touch. Production reached levels never seen before: 1981 topped 1.2 billion coins, the highest cent mintage in Canadian records. Most years of the 1970s and 1980s ran well into the hundreds of millions.
Nearly every coin in this group is common, so the interesting ones are about design and variety. Check 1965 coins for bead size, keep 1967 doves aside as a one year design and notice the shape: round to 1981, 12-sided from 1982. Weight helps with 1979 to 1981, since the lighter 1980 and 1981 coins are thinner. Worn coins are face value. Bright red uncirculated coins draw a small premium at most and the strongest interest goes to recognized varieties.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 1 cent |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1965 |
| Circulation mintage | 304,441,082 (with the Large Beads variety) |
| Composition | Bronze (98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc) |
| Weight | 3.24 g |
| Diameter | 19.05 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
Other 1965 Canadian pennies
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 Large Beads Canadian Penny | 304,441,082 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
How do you tell small beads from large beads on a 1965 cent?
Look at the ring of beads around the rim. On small beads coins the beads are clearly finer. Comparing your coin with a large beads example side by side makes the difference clear very quickly.
Is the 1965 small beads cent rare?
Not in general. It shares the published 304,441,082 mintage with all the other 1965 cents. Worn coins are face value, while uncirculated and well attributed examples draw steady interest from variety collectors.
Mintage figures: Penny (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.