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Royal Canadian Mint
Category: Public Services & Government Public Services & Government [Edit]
320 Sussex DriveOttawa, ON K1A 0G8
(613) 993-3500
6 reviews for Royal Canadian Mint
6 reviews in English
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Review from Chris Y.
8/28/2011 1 photo
This used to be the mint where all the Canadian coins were made; but all of that mass-production stuff is now done in Winnipeg. This mint handles special/collectible/commemorative/investment coins.
They offer ~30 minute tours of the museum in English and French. I think it cost me $3.50 to see it on the weekend, but they didn't really have much production going on the weekend, either. The tour goes along a glass-walled hallway above the production areas, so you get a good view of everything, while staying safely away from the furnaces, machinery, and millions of dollars.
It's a definite must-see for anyone interested in coins; and not bad at all for everyone else. Of course, no tour would be complete without ending in the gift shop!
Cool fact #1: this mint also produces some coinage for other foreign countries that don't have their own mint, like Malawi for one.
Cool fact #2: this mint produced the award medals for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and have an informative display about them!Listed in: Canadia! - The Experience
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Review from Amanda B.
Ottawa, ON
12/9/2010
You can find the Royal Canadian Mint in a really great historical building downtown, right near the water. It's been there for ages and ages, and I remember visiting it at a few different times in my life.
The last time I visited the Mint was with a really large group. The tour really inexpensive as it is, with a maximum of $5 for adults on a weekday, but we got it for even cheaper, as we were a group of nearly 50.
The Mint is known for producing special and commemorative coins and medals, and as a bit of a coin collector myself, I found it pretty interesting. I wouldn't necessarily call it a fun or exciting trip, though, since it's more of an educational and a "for your information" kind of tour. The gift shop is pretty cool, with a lot of little souvenirs and collector items, especially for anyone that's into nature, sports, or Canadian history.
Other than making coins, the Mint offers storage services. It's only available to businesses, but if you have precious metals you would like to keep tucked away, they will put them in one of their vaults. -
Review from Kwoky L.
6/5/2011
The Canadian Mint gives a pretty good tour on how coins are made in Canada. It was inexpensive and I learned a ton about the Mint in about an hour. I would highly recommend it for people who are in Ottawa but do not want to spend a fortune on museum-type places. I even bought a commemorative booklet with coins in it as a souvenir. I don't remember seeing any cool exhibits though. For the price I paid, it was worth it.
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Review from Terri Y.
6/10/2009
As the previous reviewer states, this mint only makes collector's coins whereas the Winnepeg mint makes the circulation coins. The tour was pretty informative though it was hard to see what was going on through the windows. Sure, you see machinery and people doing things, but it's a lot easier to figure out what's going on if you watch the short video clips on the monitors mounted around the touring floor. I was impressed that Canada makes coins for other countries. The tour guide told us that the gold standard is 99.99% pure or 4-9 gold. Canada has the technology to make 5-9 gold (99.999% pure) and to show off, they made a 100 kg 5-9 gold coin. It's worth 4.5 million Canadian dollars and has a face value of 1 million Canadian dollars stamped on it. Unfortunately, they did not have the coin on display, but one is supposedly traveling around the world as a museum exhibit.
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Review from Kris L.
8/3/2009 2 photos
Touring the mint was kind of neat. The tour itself was super short and it seemed like the tour guide was kind of rushing it, but it was cool to see the rooms where everything was made. Plus, I learned that the Canadian mint makes coins for other countries! Looking at all the coins was nifty. The tour ends at the store because they have to make some money! They also have an actual gold bar at the store that's connected by a chain so you can't steal it, but they invite you to lift it up. It's super duper heavy! Wow, I couldn't imagine lugging that thing around.
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Review from Jason D.
Ottawa, ON
10/15/2008 1 photo
My kids and I were in Ottawa looking for a fun place to visit and I thought "Hey, what could be more fun than seeing where money is made!" Sadly, there are probably a dozen or so funner places. The mint in Ottawa is responsible for making commemorative coins (like those minted for the Olympics) and coins for certain other nations. Regular Canadian money is actually made at the mint in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Nevertheless, we did get to tour the facility and look down onto the mint floor to see the equipment that melted the alloys, stamped the raw discs and stamped the final images. The highlight was when we exited (through the proverbial gift shop) and were invited to try lifting a real bar of gold. Man, it was so heavy! And, it was chained down and watched over by a huge guard. Oh, and you could trade your regular quarters in for special commemorative ones.... The mint is interesting, but Ottawa has so much more to offer.
