14 of the prettiest Canadian coins you could find in your change in 2025
These coins might be in your wallet already and you don't even know it! 👀
Inuit Nunangat $2 coin. Right: L. M. Montgomery $1 coin.
Over the last few years, the Royal Canadian Mint has put a lot of new Canadian coins into circulation.
These are some of the prettiest coins in Canada, and you might be able to find them in your change in 2025.
That includes colourful loonies and toonies with splashes of blue, green, orange, red and even more hues.
You could get these coins in your change this year when paying with cash and taking out money from banks in Canada.
Or you might already have them in your wallet without even knowing it!
So, here are some of the prettiest Canadian coins to look for in your change this year.
Green toonie
This National Indigenous Peoples Day $2 coin from 2023 is full of colour.
It features the combined work of three First Nation, Inuit and Métis artists.
For this toonie's inner core, it's coloured green with splashes of red, orange, white and black, and showcases the histories and heritages of First Nation, Inuit and Métis people through art.
The First Nations design features Grandmother Moon, a blossoming flower, forget-me-not flowers, circles and berries, and butterflies.
The Inuit design features ulu, the midnight sun, ocean waves, an Inukshuk, a delta braid, and tusks.
The Métis design features an infinity symbol made to look like two fiddles, the Métis sash, part of a red river cart wheel, a beaded five-petalled flower, and the spirit bead.
Purple loonie
This 2022 $1 coin celebrates Oscar Peterson, a world-renowned pianist and composer who was born in Montreal.
The loonie features Peterson sitting at a piano and playing the keys while musical notes from the closing bars of his song "Hymn to Freedom" stretch out from the instrument.
Behind Peterson, the coin has a splash of purple, which was his favourite colour.
Dark blue and white loonie
This $1 coin commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada.
It features an engraving of the exterior façade of the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa and the two bronze statues that stand outside the building.
The court's 150th-anniversary logo is overlaid on the front steps of the Supreme Court of Canada building.
It's a dark blue circle with the inscription "150" that has a white laurel branch stemming from it. The anniversary years of the court — "1875-2025" — are in white at the top right of the circle.
Light blue toonie
This 2024 $2 circulation coin celebrates Inuit Nunangat and combines the art of four Inuit artists who represent each of the four regions of Inuit Nunangat.
It features a light blue inner core with Nuliajuk (the spirit of the sea) alongside sea creatures, including a walrus, narwhal, two beluga whales, a seal, and Arctic char.
On the classic silver outer ring of the toonie, there are four regionally specific ulu, the pattern used in traditional Inuit tattooing and "INUIT NUNANGAT."
Gold rush loonie
To mark the 125th anniversary of the discovery of gold in the Klondike, this $1 circulation coin was released by the Mint.
It features the people credited with the discovery of gold on Rabbit Creek that started the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896: Keish (Skookum Jim Mason), K̲áa Goox̱ (Dawson Charlie), Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack) and her husband, George Carmack.
On the hillside, there's an icon coloured red to represent the Moosehide Gathering place where the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation relocated when it was displaced by the influx of gold rushers.
Air force toonie
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Mint put out the 2024 RCAF Centennial $2 coin.
Nine aircraft are featured on the classic silver outer ring of the RCAF Centennial toonie.
The inner core is blue with splashes of red and white — RCAF colours — and it has the RCAF roundel, the RCAF Centennial years, the Canadian boreal forest, and the CC-130 Hercules (Model H).
Camo loonie
The 2023 $1 coin celebrates Elsie MacGill, a trailblazing engineer and women's rights advocate.
It features the Hawker Hurricane aircraft MacGill helped produce during World War II. The aircraft is coloured green and brown to look like camouflage.
This loonie also features the Maple Leaf Trainer II, an aircraft she designed that earned her the honour of being the first woman in the world to design an aircraft.
There is also an engineer's iron ring (as she was the first woman to be elected to the Engineering Institute of Canada), blueprints, and a lapel pin representing MacGill's work as a women's rights advocate.
'Anne of Green Gables' coin
To honour L. M. Montgomery's writing, the Mint released a $1 circulation coin in 2024.
It features a profile portrait of the Canadian author, her signature, the drawing of a cat she often included in her writings, a portfolio and an inkwell and Anne Shirley, Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables heroine.
Behind Montgomery and her beloved character are green and orange patchwork quilt fields under the blue P.E.I. sky.
Artwork toonie
This $2 coin from 2023 honouring artist Jean Paul Riopelle is quite unique because it's literally a work of art.
The inner core of the toonie features a portion of Riopelle's L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg fresco from 1992.
It uses colours from Riopelle's original artwork, including orange, blue and white.
Blue dime
In 2021, the Royal Canadian Mint redesigned the image of the Bluenose — the fishing schooner — that has appeared on the 10-cent coin since 1937 for the first time.
This is Canada's first-ever coloured dime, and the circulation coins feature a touch of blue underneath the boat that's reminiscent of the North Atlantic waters that Bluenose sailed.
Black toonie
The Queen Elizabeth II black toonie released by the Royal Canadian Mint after the monarch's death is truly unique.
It's the first circulation coin in Canada to feature a black-nickel-coloured design.
This $2 coin has the classic design elements of the toonie — like the gold inner core that features a polar bear — but with a black outer ring instead of a silver ring.
That's meant to be reminiscent of a mourning armband and a symbol of grief.
Sky blue loonie
On the 175th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's birthday in 2022, the Mint released a $1 circulation coin to celebrate his achievements and innovative spirit.
It features a portrait of Bell and two of his inventions, the HD-4 Hydrofoil and the Silver Dart, in front of swaths of blue that look like the sky.
Red and white toonie
This $2 coin celebrating the 1972 Summit Series marked the 50th anniversary of a historic hockey win for Team Canada over Team USSR.
The toonie's inner core features two Team Canada hockey players skating on the team's maple leaf jersey emblem.
Also, the coaches' initials and the jersey numbers of each player from the team are on the outer ring.
Blue $2 coin
The Royal Canadian Mint put out this $2 circulation coin in 2021 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, a Canadian medical breakthrough.
The toonie features the classic silver and gold design but with a splash of blue to highlight the monomer, a building block of the insulin molecule.
It also has scientific instruments used in the early formulation of insulin, red blood cells, glucose and insulin molecules, and a maple leaf.
This article has been updated since it was originally published on January 29, 2025.