25 Cents - Elizabeth II Canada Day

Issued to mark the 2006 Canada Day celebrations, this is one of the early entries in the Royal Canadian Mint's coloured circulation quarter program — a series that began in 2004 with the poppy quarter and drew an immediate, hostile response from the United States Treasury, which warned American businesses they were not obliged to accept what it called "gimmick" coins. The coloured coating on circulated examples degrades predictably with handling, making fully intact specimens harder to find than mintage figures suggest.