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5 Cents - George V with DEI GRATIA
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920-1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Cents |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Left-facing draped and crowned bust of King George V, engraved by Sir E.B. MacKennal, rendered in high relief with fine detail on the imperial crown, robes, and collar. The effigy is centrally positioned within a beaded inner border. The circumferential Latin legend reads GEORGIVS V DEI GRA: REX ET IND:IMP:, divided by the portrait, running from lower left to lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | 1920 - Quantity minted at first - 10,649,851 1921 - Quantity minted at first. Most of them were melted afterwards because the May 3, 1921 law authorized to mint much larger 5 cents in nickel. Only about 400 are left. - 2,582,495 |
| Additional information |
The 1920–1921 issues mark the transition point where Canada's five-cent piece shifted from the earlier .925 silver standard down to .800 fine — a wartime economy measure that outlasted the war itself. The reduction was driven by silver's sustained high market price through 1919 and 1920, making the intrinsic value of the old composition an ongoing fiscal problem for the Dominion.
Within two years, Ottawa abandoned silver for the five-cent denomination entirely, replacing it with nickel in 1922. These two dates are therefore the shortest-lived silver composition in Canadian five-cent coinage history.