Reverse: In the center, a drummer of the French army in front of the reconstructed Dauphine Gate, the main entry into the bastion. Along the rim, Roman numerals from a sundial found during an archeological dig at the site. At the bottom, the face value.

Obverse: The portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Along the rim, the inscriptions "Elizabeth II" on the left, “Canada” at the top, "D•G•Regina" on the right, and the year of issue at the bottom.

The French came to Louisbourg in 1713, after ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. France's only remaining possessions in what is now Atlantic Canada were the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward, which were then called Isle Royale and Isle Saint-Jean. In 1719 they began to construct at Louisbourg a fortified town which was only completed on the eve of the first siege in 1745. The town and settlement along the harbor shore soon became a thriving community. The town of several thousand inhabitants was a major colonial settlement on the Atlantic edge of North America.

Louisbourg's defenses were conceived and built according to the general fortification principles of the era, which had been perfected in Europe by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), chief engineer of Louis XIV. Today, the Fortress of Louisbourg is a National Historic Site and stands as a living memorial to the 18th-century rivalry for supremacy in the New World.