Year of Pivot Pays Off for Royal Canadian Mint

2021 was a great year for the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM), despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic, with record sales, profits, and a healthy $78.9 returned to the Canadian government, compared with $20 million the previous year.

Unlike 2020, where higher sales in bullion offset lower income in the other three business areas, and profit decreased due to the impact of COVID, the revenue increase applied to all four activities. CEO Marie Lemay had described 2021 as ‘a year of pivot’ in the last financial statement. It certainly appears to have paid off, with sales up by 40% to $3.55 billion and profit before tax and other items by 200% to $82 million, easily beating its target of $47 million.

In the Canadian Circulation business, where sales have progressively declined in recent years, there was a 2% increase to $89.7 million, despite a 3% reduction in demand . Higher sales were partially offset by lower revenue from the Alloy Recovery Program

The RCM is responsible not just for production of Canadian coins, but also for issue and circulation. During the year, it fulfilled demand for 1.8 billion coins, which was 3% lower than the previous year. Of this, the lions’ share was recirculated from deposits at financial institutions, 110 million were recycled and 380 million were newly minted (an increase of 12%).

During 2021, the RCM also issued three commemorative circulation coins - a $2 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, a $1 circulation coin commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Klondike gold discovery and a 10 cent circulation coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of Bluenose.

The Foreign Coin business saw an impressive increase in sales to $112.9 million, up by 76%. 1.2 billion foreign coins and blanks were produced and shipped to nine countries, compared to 838 million coins in 2020. In 2021, the RCM was awarded two new production contracts for an aggregate of 6.5 million coins.

In the Bullion business, sales were up by 42% to $3.23 billion, and in Numismatics by 22% to $12 million. A record number of collectors coins were issued in the year.