1 Cent - George V small cent

Canada's shift from the large cent to this smaller format in 1920 was driven by wartime copper shortages that never fully resolved — the Dominion simply decided the old 25.4mm piece was wasteful and never went back. The Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa struck the entire series domestically, a point of some national pride given that earlier Canadian coinage had routinely been farmed out to the Royal Mint in London or its Heaton branch in Birmingham.

The 1936 dot issue — a small raised dot below the date added to distinguish dies prepared for a George VI obverse but struck under emergency conditions following his death — is the rarest and most contested variety in the entire small cent series, with only a handful confirmed.