RCM's Toronto coin made in Switzerland

Mint confirms info after reader emails suspicions to CCN

By Bret Evans

A Canadian coin honouring Toronto's skyline was, in fact, not made in Canada.

Royal Canadian Mint spokesman Alex Reeves confirmed that the coin was produced by PAMP, a Swiss Mint and longtime business partner with the RCM.

PAMP was the manufacturer of a group of medals sold last year by the RCM, and sells bullion.

"We recognized that a coin featuring this technology would be appealing to our growing customer base," Reeves told Canadian Coin News. "Due to the unusual diameter and thickness of this coin, this is one of those rare occasions where we used the expertise of an outside supplier to bring it to fruition."

He added that while the Royal Canadian Mint has the ability to produce a coin with these specifications, the short run and volume of work made "the supplier route the only option."

The 2011-dated coin, struck on 99.99-per-cent silver blanks, has a rather large diameter of 60 millimetres and weight of 62.34 grams. It features a Google Earth image of downtown Toronto in the centre. Around the outside of the reverse is the word "Canada" at the top, and a collage of Toronto buildings along the bottom.

The words "Canada" and "Toronto" are selectively plated in gold, as are the buildings.

The design is very similar - almost identical in fact - to a New York City coin issued by Fiji, and also produced by PAMP.

It was that similarity that compelled CCN reader Todd Skarsen to contact the publication and ask if the similarity meant the two coins have similar provenance.

"Upon searching for new and interesting coins, I have come across a coin that is suspiciously similar to the Toronto two-ounce coin," Skarsen said. "The coin is a Google map image of New York City which is also a two-ounce coin minted in Fiji.

"I do not know if the RCM contracted with this other mint but this is a possibility, since they have been selling other mints' products.

"The two coins came out within a month of each other, so I have a hard time reconciling that someone copied the design because of the length of time for tooling," he added.

The mintage of the Canadian coin was 7,500 pieces. It is the first two-ounce silver coin produced for Canada, by any mint.

It is unusual for the RCM to order coins made by other mints. The most celebrated case was the 1968 10-cent piece. That year, the RCM had 85 million 10-cent coins struck by the Philadelphia Mint due to a lack of time available to retool from silver to nickel coinage. A further 87 million nickel and 70 million silver 10-cent coins were struck that year in Ottawa. The Philadelphia pieces can be spotted by the flat bottoms in the grooves between the edge reeding.

September 27, 2011 to October 10, 2011 issue of Canadian Coin News