Royal Canadian Mint

Great tour, our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly! Thankfully we inquired about the tour in advance (form on their site) and had a reservation, a sign said it was fully booked when we arrived for ours

Quick review: If you wanna have a great little visit to somewhere a bit different from the rest of Ottawa, go to the Canadian Mint

Long review: if you actually wanna go to the mint buy your tickets in advance as in 2+ weeks ahead, depending on when your going they will be booked and you'll only have the French option and their times are based on government facilities times so be aware of that, also it's easier to walk to the mint rather than taking a cab, due to the area usually being busy but at the same time it'll same you money walking there and you'll gain an experience from the local area, overall if you like coins and just wanna have a nice time checking some out, go over and have a fun time.

Very informative, learned more than I thought I would. It's definitely a must to see. Really happy to see and hear even young ones were interested and had very incitful questions.

Really cool to see how once off / commemorative coins are produced here. Tour Guide is entertaining & very informative. Tour takes about forty five minutes. No photos or video are allowed on the tour.

The tour was much shorter then the advertised 45min. Not very interactive. Mostly consisted of walking through an enclosed tunnel and watching mini videos

Got there too late to do the tour, but decided to go to the gift shop anyway to get some souvenirs. I had previously done the tour but i was with a friend who had not seen it. At checkout when i went to pay, i was asked how i liked the tour, and i told the Representative that i didn't get to do it because we came too late. The Representative ended up giving me a free entrance for the next time i came into town. This was above and beyond what i expected.

We took a short vacation to Ottawa, and the Royal Canadian Mint was the attraction we were most looking forward to. Unfortunately, the higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment. After our trip, we liked all the attractions except for the Royal Canadian Mint. All the friends who traveled with us felt that the ticket was not worth it for this attraction. Here's why:

Firstly, you can't buy cheap and beautiful commemorative coins for a dollar or two. Because the Mint no longer produces circulating coins, they mostly produce investment and commemorative coins made of gold and silver. The whole tour felt more like a large advertisement where you end up in a queue to buy commemorative coins ranging from dozens to thousands of dollars.

Secondly, the tour experience was very poor.

The number of people in each tour group was too large, making it crowded. Only those at the front could hear the guide, while those at the back could hardly hear anything. The number of visitors per round was twice that of the free tours in the Senate and House of Commons, but the space was only half as wide. The tour involved looking at the factory operations through glass from a distance. You can't see any details, only the videos displayed beside the operations area, which the staff would explain. The visitor center had no seats, and you had to stand for an hour watching videos. For friends studying engineering, the tour would remind you of an engineering internship class, where you stand in a crowd and can hardly see anything while listening to an instructor ramble on about big, dangerous machines. In summary, both young and old visitors will likely be confused. However, parents can bring their children to arouse their interest in mechanical design. Although, whether or not you'd want to inspire an interest in a field that many consider a "money pit" is questionable.

As for suggestions to improve the tour:

Learn from European mints where each visitor can exchange for a $1 or $2 colored commemorative coin, making everyone leave happy and satisfied. Limit the number of people per tour to around 10 so that everyone can see. Add a few seats in the corridor for those who wish to rest. Standing for an hour is too tiring, especially for the elderly and disabled. All other attractions in Ottawa, like the Senate, House of Commons, and National Art Gallery, have ample seating for visitors.

We went to the Boutique/Gift Store only. When you walk up to the gate, just simply tell them, they will let you in and tell you where to go. The building itself is incredible, and the store is no exception. We bought a couple of coins and got a deck of cards thrown in for free. Yannick behind the counter was an absolute rock star! He made us feel welcome, gave so much information, and you could just feel the passion that he has for his job! A thousand times THANK YOU!

Service Pourrie! Je fais une commande en ligne je paye avec ma carte de crédit et 2 mois apres quand c’est le temps du shipping on m’envoie un e-mail pour me dire que je dois appeler. J’appelle et pour avoir ma commande on me demande un transfert bancaire et ne veulent pas accepter ma carte de crédit!
Très mauvais service. Vous êtes mieux servie chez la compétition définitivement! Il est illégal d’afficher que vous acceptez Visa, MasterCard Amex et ensuite demander un virement bancaire! Vous êtes des voleurs.

Been an extremely long and painful process trying to make a purchsse on their website. Has caused alot of frustration.

Enjoyed the tour. Not as much to see on weekends as the machines aren't running inside. Tour guide Jeremy was fun and knowledgeable

MORE INTERESTING THAN YOUR AVERAGE MUSEUM - My kids were 8 (boy) and 10 (girl) when we took the tour. I expected them to be bored. They weren’t. They loved the tour.

Informative and interesting experience here at the Royal Canadian Mint. The tour guide was well educated on the subject. Definitely recommend it if you are a coin geek like us!

One of the highlights of my trip to Ottawa. It helped that I am a coin collector and wanted to see the mint responsible for many a silver coin I have purchased over the years. The tour guide was great and gave me a lot of insight into the operations of the mint. They only make bullion and collector coins at this mint. The circulating coins come from the mint in Winnipeg. Was cool to see several hundred thousand dollars in rolled up bands of solid silver and a robotic machine measuring gold and silver coins for precise weights. At the end of the tour is a gift shop. Save your money and just ask the cashier for change and they will give you uncirculated coins fresh from the Winnipeg mint at face value. Got the new special edition Armistice and D-Day toonies.

Unique experience. It’s pretty cool to see how coins are made, very informative and intense tour therefore maybe not suitable for toddler.
They also have gift shops that sell special coins

Unique experience, being a Canadian and learning about our how our money works. Loved the gift shop because it's such a cool souvenir to have

Bonjour,

Ne commander pas avec cette compagnie, j'attends depuis le 5 décembre (presque 2 mois) ma pièce et il n'y a pas moyen de parler à un gestionnaire, à chaque fois que j'appel on me dit quelle est en route mais je ne la reçois jamais.

Vraiment un mauvais service après vente.

Phone and photography not allowed. The tour you just see videos! Every section of making gold and silver coins they take u to the part and play a video that’s it. You don’t really see anything being made.

Very cool to see how the Mint operates!
Take the tour, there's some really neat stuff inside.

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Once or two of the videos were malfunctioning on the tour, but it didn't matter; our guide was brilliant and there were workers or robots active at every station along the process. Very entertaining and educational for adults or for kids!

Very informative tour. We visited on a Sunday so not too much was operating but the guide did an excellent job of explaining all the processes.

Great tour at the mint! Learned about the difference between collection and investment coins! It's a must see if you're visiting ottawa.

The mint tour is amazing and very informative. I loved how you can hold that gold brick after the tour. I have visited this place twice and would visit again if possible. Also a great place to collect souvenirs for friends and family. You can get good information if you are thinking about investing in gold and silver.

C'est bien, intéressant mais trop rapide. Nous allons d'une station à l'autre et nous aurions aimé avoir plus de temps par station.

Thought this would cover the current currency, my mistake should have realized this was all about investments.

Interesting place. Definitely take the tour. Learn alot about the coin making process. They DONT make bills here, only a great variety of coins.

Very interesting visit. I was hoping to buy buillons but they dont sell them anymore. I enjoyed the guided tour although i wish the groups were smaller.

This mint specializes in collector and investor coins made from precious metals. The gift shop is great. Very good quality of coins!