5 Cents - Elizabeth II 4th portrait, No P no RCM logo

The 2006 five-cent piece occupies an odd transitional moment in Canadian coinage. That year the Royal Canadian Mint was phasing in its new "RCM" logo mintmark while simultaneously retiring the "P" mark that had denoted nickel-plated steel composition — used to distinguish those pieces from the older copper-nickel alloy. Coins struck without either mark represent a brief window in the production cycle, before the new logo was consistently applied to the copper-nickel planchets still running through the presses.

KM#491b is consequently scarcer in circulation finds than either the marked or the plated-steel equivalents from the same year.