The Royal Canadian Mint opened on January 2, 1908, striking its first 50-cent piece at its site on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, still the headquarters of the Mint today. In 1911 a refinery operation was added, initially capable of refining gold to 99.5 per cent purity and now producing 99.99 and 99.999 per cent pure gold.

Today, the Royal Canadian Mint, a Canadian Crown corporation since 1969, employs over 700 highly-skilled and dedicated individuals. It produces Canadian and foreign collector coins, custom medals and the famous "Maple Leaf" coins in gold, platinum and silver. In addition, the Ottawa facility also designs and creates master tools for all coins and coin-related products produced by the Royal Canadian Mint; it provides consulting services to other nations; and its Assay Division produces precious metal reference materials. Furthermore, the refinery now produces close to 4.2 million ounces of refined gold annually.

The Royal Canadian Mint's other facility is its state-of-the-art high volume production complex in Winnipeg, Manitoba, opened in 1975 and responsible for the production of Canada's circulation coins. This minting operation, with the capacity to produce four billion coins a year, is also the mint of choice for many foreign countries to produce their domestic circulation coins.