Canadian Dollar (CAD)

About the Canadian Dollar

The Canadian Dollar (CAD) is the official currency of Canada. Its symbol is $, often written C$ or CA$ abroad to distinguish it from other dollar currencies, and one dollar divides into 100 cents. The Bank of Canada, the nation's central bank, designs and issues Canada's bank notes, while the Royal Canadian Mint produces all of its circulation coins.

Canada lets market forces set the Canadian dollar's external value under a flexible exchange-rate regime. The Bank of Canada states that this floating dollar permits it to pursue an independent monetary policy, and that the dollar's value is not fixed to any other currency or to a precious metal such as gold. Monetary policy targets 2 per cent inflation, the midpoint of a 1 to 3 per cent control range, rather than any level of the exchange rate, and movements in the dollar act as a buffer that helps the economy absorb external shocks.

Canada's decimal dollar dates from the 1850s. The Province of Canada revised its Currency Act in 1857 so that provincial accounts were kept in dollars from 31 December 1857, and the first silver and bronze coins denominated in cents and bearing the word Canada were issued in 1858, replacing pound-based colonial money. The Bank of Canada Act received royal assent on 3 July 1934, and the central bank began operations on 11 March 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression.

No country has had a floating exchange rate longer than Canada's. The dollar first floated in September 1950, was fixed again from May 1962 until 1970, and has floated continuously since 31 May 1970, when Finance Minister Edgar Benson ended its US-dollar par value. In the Bank for International Settlements' September 2025 survey commentary, the Canadian dollar held a stable share of around 6% of average daily turnover, grouped with the Australian dollar among the world's most traded currencies.

Bank notes circulate in five denominations, from $5 to $100, printed on polymer since the Frontiers series completed its rollout in November 2013; a vertically oriented $10 note featuring civil-rights pioneer Viola Desmond followed on 19 November 2018. Coins run from 5 cents to the 2-dollar toonie, with the 1-dollar loonie introduced in 1987 and the toonie on 19 February 1996. The Royal Canadian Mint ended production of the 1-cent penny in May 2012, and the $1, $2, $25, $500 and $1,000 notes ceased to be legal tender on 1 January 2021.