Canadian Dollar (CAD) Profile

Canadian dollar users

The Canadian dollar is the official currency of Canada. It is also widely used and accepted by Saint Pierre and Miquelon whose official currency is euro. Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France and locates near Canada.

Canada is a North American country, borders with the United States with the world’s longest land border. It is the world’s second-largest country by total area.

Canada was established in 1867 from the United Kingdom. It was formed through confederation and combined as a federal dominion firstly with four provinces including Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Until 1999, Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories.

Canada obtained full independence from the United Kingdom in 1931 and became the first Commonwealth realm.

A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign country within the Commonwealth of Nations which now consists of 16 Commonwealth realms of Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom. Except for Papua New Guinea and the United Kingdom itself, the other fourteen realms are former British colonies. The United Kingdom is the original realm from which other realms became independent and Papua New Guinea obtained independence from Australia on 16 September 1975.The first Commonwealth realm is Canada which adopted the Act of Statute of Westminster 1931 and granted full autonomy, followed by Australia and New Zealand. Each later twelfth realms (except the United Kingdom itself) was created by an instant grant of independence.

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization consisting of 54 independent member states which mostly were part of the British Empire.

Notes:
<1>. The U.K is the original realm from which other realms became independent.
<2>. Austria, Canada, New Zealand adopted the Act of Statute of Westminster 1931 and granted full autonomy.
<3>. Papua New Guinea obtained independence from Australia on 16 September 1975.

Canadian dollar history

Canadian dollar history was traced back to Canadian pound which was created in 1841 based on Halifax rating. A Canadian pound was equal to four US dollars (92.88 grains gold), or worth pound sterling at 16 shillings and 5.3 pence. The idea to introduce a decimal coinage in conjunction with the U.S.dollar unit was brought in 1857 and was firstly adopted by the two colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, followed by Newfoundland in 1865. The federation Dominion of Canada was established in 1867 and formed the beginning of Canadian dollar. The Uniform Currency Act was passed in 1871, replacing the various currencies of federal provinces with a common Canadian dollar.

The exchange rate of Canadian dollar to U.S dollar was fixed at 1 USD=1.1 CAD in early Second World War, followed the changes to parity in 1946 and back to 1 USD=1.1 CAD in 1949. The fixed rate was 1 CAD =0.925 USD during 1962 to 1970. The Canadian dollar had been adopted floating exchange rate regime from 1950 to 1962, and from 1970 to present.

Canadian dollar coins and banknotes

The Canadian dollar is subdivided into 100 cents. Currently frequently used coins are in denominations of 5, 10, 25 cents and 1, 2 dollars. Frequently used banknotes are 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 dollars.

The Canadian dollar is kept as a reserve currency by many central banks and it was ranked 6th in value held as reserves. Canadian dollar especially coins are accepted by some businesses in the northernmost cities of the United States.