20 Cents - Victoria

New Brunswick's 20-cent piece was a deliberate deviation from the decimal coinage being developed in the Province of Canada, where the 20-cent denomination was already controversial. The choice reflected New Brunswick's commercial ties to the United States — a 20-cent coin divided neatly into the American dollar at five coins per dollar, a practical consideration for cross-border trade along the Maine frontier.

The denomination was short-lived. Confederation in 1867 absorbed New Brunswick into the Dominion, and the new federal coinage system abandoned the 20-cent piece entirely in favor of the 25-cent quarter, aligning Canada with British rather than American reckoning.