Sudbury's Big Nickel celebrates its 60th birthday

The Big Nickel is an exact replica of the 1951 Canadian nickel. As well, 1951 marked the 200th anniversary of nickel's naming as an element. (File)

An event July 22 at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury will mark the 60th anniversary of the iconic Big Nickel, the largest coin in the world.

“The Big Nickel is an exact replica of the 1951 Canadian nickel,” Dynamic Earth says on its website.

“It was built in 1964 and symbolizes the wealth that Sudbury has contributed to the Canadian economy through nickel production. The base enables the public to walk around and under the 13,000-kg coin, with barrier-free access.”

There used to be four other massive coins along with the Big Nickel: the Fantasy Penny, the Lincoln Penny, the Kennedy Half Dollar and the Twenty Dollar Gold Piece.

“These other four monuments were all dismantled in 1984,” Dynamic Earth said.

An icon in front of an icon: The late Alex Trebek stands in front of the Big Nickel in 2015. (File photo/Mark Gibeault)

The 1951 five-cent coin was used as the monument because it was the 200th anniversary of the isolation and naming of the element nickel.

Other facts about the Sudbury monument:

- On the ‘heads’ side is King George VI, and on the ‘tails’ is a stylized nickel refinery with one large stack.

- It is about 64,607,747 times the size of a real Canadian nickel.

- Since 1999, the composition of the five-cent coin has changed to 94.5 per cent steel, 3.5 per cent copper, and only two per cent nickel.

The July 22 event at Dynamic Earth begins at 10 a.m. More info can be found here.

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