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The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM, French: Monnaie royale canadienne) produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufactures circulation coins on behalf of other nations. more...

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The mint also designs and manufactures: collector coins; gold, silver, palladium, and platinum (1989–1999) bullion coins; customized medals, tokens, trade dollar watches, and, for a brief time, high end jewellery featuring coin designs. It further offers gold and silver refinery and assay services.

The RCM is a Crown corporation that operates under the legislative basis of the Royal Canadian Mint Act. All monies in Canada are technically issued with the authority of the Canadian monarch; however, all operations are overseen by the President and CEO, or Master of the Mint, who is the senior executive officer of the organization, reporting to a Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.

The mint has been at the forefront of currency innovation. Among the mint's technical innovations have included its plating process, which consists of a multi-ply technology that allows electromagnetic signatures to be embedded in the coins, assuring readability in the coin-processing industries. Another innovation was the world's first coloured circulation coin, the 2004 Remembrance Day 25¢ piece, with a red poppy on the reverse. Further innovation was achieved with the adaptation of the physical vapour deposition (PVD) technology to coat its dies, extending the life of the die beyond that of past chrome-coated dies.

In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, one of only a handful of Crown corporations to receive this honour.

Ottawa facility

For the first fifty years of Canadian coinage (cents meant to circulate in the Province of Canada were first struck in 1858), the coins were not struck in Canada. For the most part, they were struck at the Royal Mint in London, though some were struck at the private Heaton mint in Birmingham, England. With greater coinage needs, as well as Canada's emerging status as a nation in its own right, a need was seen for coinage to be struck within Canada. A branch of the Royal Mint was authorized to be built in Ottawa.

Established as the Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint, Governor General Lord Grey and Lady Grey activated the presses for the Canadian Mint on January 2, 1908. Three years later, the refinery opened, and in 1915 the mint chlorine method of gold refining was introduced. In its first years, both Canadian gold coins and British sovereigns were struck, but the disuse of gold as a coinage metal meant it was not until 1967 that gold coins were again struck.

Read more at Wikipedia.org