The Award of Merit, the highest award the ONA bestows, was introduced by the ONA in 1962. The purpose is to give recognition to the person living in Ontario who has made the greatest contribution towards the advancement of numismatics at all levels - local, provincial and national. The winner is announced at the Banquet of the annual ONA Convention.

All nominated candidates are reviewed with the assistance of, but not limited to, the following criteria. Nominees must be a resident of Ontario. The individual's full numismatic history should be presented to the committee by the nominator, not only accomplishments of the last year but the total involvement during his/her involvement with the hobby. A well-rounded numismatic background should include work at the local, regional and national levels, including any executive and committee work that was done by the nominee, length of involvement in promoting numismatics in the local community such as with museum and mall displays, published articles in the papers, TV & radio interviews, contributions made to coin shows and coin conventions, exhibiting at numismatic projects, other outstanding efforts in the numismatic area.

The Award of Merit is in the form of a silver medal and a suitable certificate. The medal bears the ONA crest on one side and the recipient's name and the year it is presented on the other side. Recipients also receive a banquet ticket and an engraved metallic nameplate identifying the bearer as a recipient of the award. The nametag, featuring the ONA crest as well as the name of the award, has a pin backing so that it can be worn to all numismatic functions. Those nominated are judged a few months prior to the annual convention, and the winner is announced at the Banquet at the Annual Convention. The Committee may add their own nominations over and above any received from the membership. The original Award of Merit Medals was 10kt Gold, The first one donated by Molson's won by Robert Willey. They were 10kt Gold until 1970.

Previous ONA Award of Merit winners are: