Pennies have a long history in Canada, and they've gone from being a day's wage for a workman to throwaway junk. Before Confederation, most provinces minted their own, such as the 1857 Upper Canada example below. In 1858, pennies were issued in the name of the Province of Canada; they were about the size of a modern quarter. The first pennies of the Dominion of Canada were issued in 1876; they were similar to the 1912 example shown. In 1920, the size of the penny was reduced from 1" to 3/4" to make it the same size as the American penny, and in 1937 the modern maple leaf design was adopted. The maple leaf design was interrupted only once: for 1967 it was changed to a dove.
All coins must be labelled with the year of their minting to be legal tender in Canada. However, in 2002 the location of the date was changed from the maple leaf side to the sovereign side to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
When I started my boyhood penny collection in the 1940's, a penny bought four cinnamon heart candies at the corner store and 12 of them bought a loaf of National Bakery bread. When I rediscovered it 50 years later and decided to bring it up to date, I had to check 765 pennies before filling in all the years. Although 218 million pennies were produced in 1990, it was the last year to be found. Of course, I graphed the dates:
On average, half of all pennies minted have been lost from circulation every ten years. However, that rate has increased since Y2K as their value has declined - today, 70% of all Canadian coins minted are pennies, to keep up with losses!