struck was a one cent piece. As a branch of the Royal Mint, the Ottawa Mint was authorized to mint gold sovereigns, with the same legal status as sovereigns issued by the Royal Mint in Britain. In 1911, the Ottawa branch produced over 256,000 sovereigns. In 1931, the Canadian government took over full control of the Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint, renaming it the Royal Canadian Mint and bringing it under the authority of the Minister of Finance. The British government accordingly repealed the status of the Mint as a branch of the Royal Mint. Relationship to the gold standard When first created in 1868, the Canadian dollar was partially backed by gold. Under the Dominion Notes Act, the government was required to have gold reserves of up to twenty per cent of the value of the first five million dollars of notes issued, rising to twenty-five per cent of the value of the next three million dollars issued. This followed the similar requirement which had been in place for the Province of Canada dollar since 1854. The combination of the gold standard, the fixed value of the Canadian dollar to both the pound sterling and the US dollar, and the lack of any controls on the export of gold meant that the federal government did not have much ability to implement monetary policy. As a result, Canada experienced several periods of rapid economic contraction and expansion in the period between the establishment of Canadian currency and the outbreak of World War I. In the days immediately prior to the outbreak of the war in August 1914, withdrawals from banks increased dramatically and there was a fear of bank runs, as depositors demanded gold or government notes rather than bank notes. The federal government took steps to stabilise the banks, including ending the convertibility of notes to gold for the duration of the War. Instead, the bank notes acquired status as legal tender. Canada was off the gold standard. As well, the federal government authorised the Minister of Finance to act as a lender of last resort to the banks to ensure their stability, one of the first steps towards the establishment of a central bank. Although it was widely expected that Canada would return to the gold standard after the War, it was not until 1926 that the government did so. Following the return to the gold standard,