2011 Boreal Forest Toonie
The 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie is a circulating toonie with 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
- 2011
- Circulation mintage
- 5,000,000
- Value band
- Face value
- Designer
- Nolin BBDO Montreal
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 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie worth?
5 million were made, so the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie is easy to find. A circulated one is worth face value; collectors pay a little more only for uncirculated coins.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition
- Colored versions from collector packs
- Specimen or proof finish from a Mint set
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie rare?
- No. 5 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie coins were made?
- 5,000,000 were struck for circulation.
- Who designed the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie?
- The design is credited to Nolin BBDO Montreal.
- What is the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie made of?
- Bimetallic: nickel outer ring, aluminum bronze core. It weighs 7.3 g and measures 28 mm.
- Is the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie still legal tender?
- Yes. Every toonie, commemoratives included, is legal tender in Canada.
Why the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie was made
Parks Canada turned 100 in 2011. It began in 1911 as the Dominion Parks Branch, the first national parks service in the world. Today it looks after national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas from coast to coast. The Royal Canadian Mint marked the centennial with more than one circulating coin. The loonie that year honored Parks Canada directly, while the toonie was dedicated to one of the landscapes the agency helps protect: Canada's boreal forest.
The boreal forest is the wide band of conifers, wetlands and lakes that stretches across the country from the Yukon to Newfoundland and Labrador. It is one of the largest intact forest regions left on Earth and a breeding ground for huge numbers of migratory birds, along with caribou, wolves, lynx and moose. Many Indigenous communities have lived in and depended on it for thousands of years. Putting it on the toonie brought a quiet, sweeping subject into everyday change, a reminder that much of the country's land is forest rather than farmland or city.
How to recognize it
The design is credited to the Montreal agency Nolin BBDO, which makes this one of the few toonies not attributed to a single artist. It has a modern, graphic style rather than a lifelike one. Three stylized trees rise across the core, with a bird and a human figure set among them, a simple way of showing people and wildlife sharing the forest. The clean lines make it look quite different from the detailed wildlife scenes on most Canadian coins, so it stands out once you know what to look for. Check for the trees, the bird and the figure together, plus the 2011 date. The obverse shows Queen Elizabeth II in the Susanna Blunt portrait.
2011 Boreal Forest Toonie by the numbers
In mintage terms the 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie ranks 2nd lowest of 13 circulating toonies with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Toonie (4.31 million); the next more common is the 2012 War of 1812: HMS Shannon Toonie (5 million).
For scale, the most common is the 2000 Path of Knowledge Toonie with 29.9 million, about 6 times as many. The scarcest is the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Toonie with 4.31 million.
It was the only circulating commemorative toonie dated 2011.
What to check on your 2011 Boreal Forest Toonie
- Confirm the design: the Boreal Forest reverse dated 2011, in a silver-colored ring with a gold-colored center.
- Check whether it has added color. Colored toonies came from collector products or special circulation releases; keep them out of rough handling.
- Look at the join between ring and core. It should be tight and even; a loose or damaged core is damage, not a rarity.
- Specimen and proof toonies from Mint sets have satin or mirror finishes that circulation coins never have.
Exactly 5,000,000 were struck for circulation, a typical figure for a modern commemorative toonie and much lower than the early issues of 1999 and 2000. Circulated coins are face value. Because the design is made of flat, stylized shapes, wear shows as dulling on the tree tops and the figure rather than loss of fine detail. A bright, unmarked coin can carry a small premium for a set. Pairing it with the 2011 Parks Canada loonie is a nice way to show both coins from the centennial year.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 2 dollars |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 2011 |
| Circulation mintage | 5,000,000 |
| Composition | Bimetallic: nickel outer ring, aluminum bronze core |
| Weight | 7.3 g |
| Diameter | 28 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Intermittent milling |
| Designer | Nolin BBDO Montreal |
Frequently asked questions
What does the 2011 Boreal Forest toonie celebrate?
It honors Canada's boreal forest and was issued for the 100th anniversary of Parks Canada, founded in 1911 as the world's first national parks service. The stylized design shows three trees, a bird and a human figure.
How many Boreal Forest toonies were made?
The Royal Canadian Mint struck 5,000,000 for circulation. That is a normal mintage for a modern commemorative toonie, so circulated coins are plentiful and stay at face value. Sharp uncirculated examples draw a small premium from set builders.
Mintage figures: Toonie (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.