Canadian fifty-cent coin

50-cent coin

Canada
Value	0.50 Canadian dollar
Mass	6.9 g
Diameter	27.13 mm
Thickness	1.95 mm
Edge	Milled
Composition	Nickel-plated steel 93.15% steel, 4.75% Cu, 2.1% Ni plating
Years of minting	1870–present
Catalogue number	–
Obverse
Design	Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada
Designer	Susanna Blunt
Design date	2003
Design discontinued	2023
Design	Charles III, King of Canada
Designer	Steven Rosati
Design date	2023
Reverse
Design	Canadian coat of arms
Designer	Thomas Shingles
Design date	1959, updated 1997

The Canadian fifty-cent coin (French: pièce de cinquante cents) is a Canadian coin worth 50 cents. The coin's reverse depicts the coat of arms of Canada. At the opening ceremonies for the Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint, held on January 2, 1908, Governor General Earl Grey struck the Dominion of Canada's first domestically produced coin. It was a silver fifty-cent coin bearing the effigy of King Edward VII.

Though it is regularly minted, it is not made in large quantities (approximate annual average production of 150,000), and since 2004 has only been available to the public directly from the mint.^[1] It is very rare to encounter this denomination in everyday transactions, since there seems to be the mistaken belief among many Canadians that the coin itself is rare. Most times, when a 50-cent coin is exchanged in a transaction, it is saved by its recipient. People quite commonly, upon being presented with 50-cent coins, question the legality of the coin, because of the non-circulating status of the denomination. The coin occupies a similar status to that of the United States half-dollar coin. Vending machines do not generally accept it, even when they accept coins of both higher and lower value.

A largely unsuccessful attempt was made by the Royal Canadian Mint to promote the use of the coin when a special edition was released in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Elizabeth II to the throne. After this failed promotion, the mint stopped distributing 50-cent coins to banks and now sells them only in rolls or in coin sets available directly from their Numismatic Department at twice their face value, or $25 per roll of 25 coins.^[2][3]

The mint's website lists the 2007 coat of arms 50-cent coin as "rarely seen yet replete with tradition".^[4][5]