The twenty-cent piece was a

Canadian coin The coins of Canada are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint and denominated in Canadian dollars ($) and the subunit of dollars, cent (currency), cents (¢). An effigy of the reigning monarch always appears on the obverse of all coins. There are s ...

struck by the Royal Mint of the United Kingdom for the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

in 1858. It consisted of 92.5% silver, and 7.5% copper. A total of 730,392 were struck.

History

With the passing of the Currency Act on 1 August 1854, the Province of Canada introduced a decimal currency. Coins were struck in 1-, 5-, 10- and 20-cent denominations. The new Canadian dollar was equal in value to the

New Brunswick dollar The dollar was the currency of New Brunswick between 1860 and 1867. It replaced the New Brunswick pound, pound at a rate of 4 dollars = 1 pound (5 shillings = 1 dollar) and was equal to the Canadian dollar. The New Brunswick dollar was replaced by ...

, which was introduced in 1852. In order to accommodate transactions involving the Nova Scotian pound, the Province of Canada chose to issue a twenty-cent coin, which was the equivalent to a shilling in Nova Scotian currency. However, no shilling coin was issued by Nova Scotia, and the British shilling was worth 20 percent more than a Nova Scotian shilling. The twenty-cent coin was confused with both British shillings and American quarters, and was therefore not minted beyond 1858. The coins were withdrawn from circulation and, from 1885 on, returned to the Royal Mint to be recoined as 25-cent pieces.

Varieties

There are several known varieties of the twenty-cent coin, primarily involving the letter I on the obverse in the words VICTORIA, GRATIA, or DEI. The majority of twenty-cent coins have a coinage alignment; however, approximately 25 percent were struck with a medal alignment.

References

{{Canadian_currency_and_coinage Coins of Canada Twenty-cent coins