The Future of The Canadian Dollar

To conclude this month about the Canadian dollar, I would say I have a feeling that the future of the Canadian dollar seems so uncertain yet stable. Its closest rival being the American dollar and they always differ by a few cents. However I remembered of asking my management professor at university about dollars in general. I asked why do people trust the U.S dollar despite being knowing that the country's economy is not healthy. He could not give me a convincing answer.

However he did say that the Canadian dollar or Canada in general was meant to be different that the United States. What he meant different would mean better and with improvements. We did learn a lot about the difference in the banking system in these two countries. Although I have never seen a U.S dollar in real life. I always want to hold one of these green paper with their former presidents on its side. Somehow holding the US dollar makes me feel powerful.

Something for sure about the Canadian dollar is that its banknotes will change dramatically by the end of 2013. A new material will be used in the making of banknotes and together they will form the polymer banknotes. They already implemented it on the $50 and $100 dollar bills and what some friends told me is that it felt like holding plastic instead of money. This new technology was aimed to eliminate the risk of banknote counterfeiting, But lately someone mentioned that the banknote melted at high temperatures. I believe they said 140°C which is not a temperature you would ever find only in ovens. It was a nice discovery but what a waste of money.

This was my view about the Canadian dollar and its purchasing power. Different countries may have different currencies and so far I am quite satisfied with the currency I am currently using. It might not be the best in the world but what defines the best currency? It is just a question of personal preference.

The 100 CAD - $100

The 100 CAD - $100

Our journey ends with the 100 CAD or $100 dollar bill. It is the largest denomination in Canadian dollars and as the name suggest, it is worth $100. It has a bizarre chocolate brown colour and I have not been able to analyse it closely because I never had it. I can only guess that holding a $100 bill must make one feel rich.

Indeed with $100 almost all the high class restaurants become available. I have seen total bills amounting over $100 but I have never seen a meal on its own costing between $50 and $100. Even the top notch restaurants I have been to do not have dishes costing over $50.

The only unfortunate side of the $100 bill is that it is not readily accepted as payment. Not that it is not legal tender but I assume it has lot of issues about counterfeits.

The 50 CAD - $50

The 50 CAD - $50

This particular banknote is a big one as it is worth $50. It has a distinguished red colour. A colour that seem to belong in the boardgame of Monopoly. But maybe it has something with the national flag because the Canadian flag is also red. I have on very rare occasion handled the $50 bill. Probably only when I was paying rents and that was more than 3 years ago.

In terms of value, it is also the largest banknote which all stores and supermarkets. There might be some exceptions around which I am not aware but to my knowledge so far all of them accepted the $50 bill. Needless to say that when you have $50, it is worth quite a large of money. you could pay family's dinner at cheap to average priced restaurants with it or you can even afford going to the top restaurants and order almost everything you want with quite some ease. The Red Lobster; a seafood restaurant is now a possibility. A friend of mine told me that the lobster costed around $30 before taxes and gratuities. That gives one about $20 to cover the mentioned expenses which is more than enough.

A day to Wonderland which is an amusement park is also ensured with $50. The door price is obviously higher ($58) but if you can get someone to buy your ticket online ($40) and pay him or her later you would definitely save. Of course there are other amusement parks which cost much less such as Ontario Place, or CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) and at these two places, $50 is worth a family package.

The 20 CAD - $20

The 20 CAD - $20

The 20 dollar bill is the one I have in mind when someone says Canadian dollar to me. Why? because of its colour. Of all bank notes I do not know why I always picture green to be the ideal colour for money. Perhaps it is because it was depicted as green in almost all cartoons I watched during my childhood.

First thing one would probably notice is the person representation. It is no one else but Queen Elizabeth II as if we have not seen her lately on all the coins. Nevertheless $20 is the minimum amount you can withdraw from an automatic banking machine which at times can be so troublesome. Thus because of that, the 20 dollar bill is widely considered to be the most common Canadian banknote.

In terms of purchasing power, $20 can get you almost everything you want to eat on campus. On rare occasions, one full meal would exceed $20 and that exception is at the Schulich Executive Dining which is probably the most expensive restaurant on campus. Other food places might not even exceed the $15 mark.

Outside campus premises, we are moving to the average-priced restaurants. Steaks can even be obtained but without the drinks and other add-on and these are at those okay-ish restaurants. The only food costing $20 or less that one could get at top notch restaurants would be pasta and I never understand why so much for something one could make at home. $20 is surely a decent amount, there are still some "unobtainable" in what you can get such as lobsters, giant shrimps.

Finally for $20 I would suggest two places that can be value for money: The first one being an All You Can Eat Barbecue Grill at the Korean Grill and the second is Frankie Tomatoes which is your stereotypical average Italian buffet. $20 would include the food, the taxes and the gratuities for both restaurants.

The 10 CAD - $10

The 10 CAD - $10

Next in the list is the 10 dollar bill. Again as I mentioned earlier the size does not change so there is no need to talk about that except for the colour person and picture on the banknote's sides who is represented by Sir John Macdonald. Its colour is no other than purple or some sort of  violet.

Sir John Macdonald was a great figure in Canadian history as we were told in our management and Canadian business history class. He was the first Canadian prime minister and it was not surprising that the topic which was discussed alongside him was the Canadian dollar. The reason behind this is because it was around this period that the Canadian dollar was being introduced.

The $10 bill is a bank note which is very interesting. It is the ideal amount you need to get almost every full meal combo on campus excluding all the extras. Still with three combo meals this amount can triple to $30 and even more at times. It is not restricted to campus food but almost every fast-food chains in the city. With $10 one can start going to a cheap to average priced restaurants for food including tips and taxes. The foods include congee with fried bread (Chinese) and Phở (Vietnamese). It can get you to a movie at cheap theatres.

The 5 CAD - $5

The 5 CAD - $5

The first bank note in the series is the $5 bill. In my first management course at university we learnt so much about the Canadian paper money and it was quite an interesting topic. However, I am not going to give a history course of the money but just like coins I will give my personal opinions about the banknotes.

First thing I noticed about the Canadian banknotes is that unlike coins, they have no inconsistencies in their size. They do not increase in size either unlike other currencies such as the Euro. However they have different people representing each bank note as well as different back image. The $5 bill is blue in colour similar to the €20 bill. ufortunately I am not going to cover unless I know what I will talk about.

With $5 in hand you could get quite something on campus. It is sad that it is the minimum amount you need to charge up the card. That can be quite a large sum of money since it is worth 50 sheets of paper printed in black and white. However the only convenience for those who are in favour of this new system would argue that one will not have to top up too often. To me this is just a concealed way to lock your money in a card.

As far as food is concerned, you could get cheap food with $5 but I doubt a combo meal. These cheap foods could include muffins, cookies, soups and sandwich of the day at tastes. As for combo meals I can only imagine bagel with cheese with coffee, the big breakfast and hot dog or sausage at a hot dog stand with canned pop. These hot dogs alone cost $3 while sausages which is probably tastier cost $4. The same combo costed $1 less about two years ago; again showing the hike affected the food sector as well.

The Toonie - $2

The Toonie - $ 2

We finally come to the toonie which is the last coin in the Canadian dollar. For some time I thought the word toonie was supposed to be written as "Twonie" since it represented $ 2. It was only after some research that I found out more about that coin. The toonie like all the coins discussed so far also bears the Queen on its obverse while its reverse bears polar bear.

Just like the loonie, the toonie has been given a new look to prevent the counterfeits. These add-on include a relocation of the written part on the coin, 2 maple leafs logo, and another engraving near the top. Its inner ring is mostly made from bronze while the outer ring is made from nickel. I also want to mention that the toonie is the largest, thickest and heaviest among all the coins. The edge is partly rimmed and has the words "2 DOLLARS" engraved on it.

Left to right: new design, old design

Today on the university campus, the toonie is very popular and its popularity has gone through a hike thanks to the price of bottled pop that increase some years ago from $1.75 to $2. Canned pop also becomes affordable whose prices range between $1 and $1.25. However you still cannot use it to top up the library card with a minimum of $2. It is also the amount of money that would allow you to get a decent snack such as chocolate bars at prices ranging between $1.50 to $1.75. However even the smallest fries would be unobtainable due to prices set at $1.89 before the 13% taxes.

Higher grade articles at dollar store become more accessible but with price increasing almost every year, I can only see that the dollar stores would have articles starting at $2. I mean they already have most of their articles at $1.25 and it can only increase in my opinion. However to be optimistic, I would say they should maintain it at $1 this is what makes the stores so unique.

Over the next days to come, things are going to be more serious as we move towards "Big Money". There is no longer the need to talk about cents as the denomination is going to increase substantially till we reach the highest domination of the Canadian dollar.

The Loonie - $1

The Loonie - $1

The loonie is the first non-cent coin I am going to talk about today and this coin is very interesting. Its name comes from the loon which is a duck and is also on the reverse side of the coin. Queen Elizabeth II is still on the coin's obverse. It is worth $1 and it is brass plated and because of that it has a yellowish tint in colour. A few years back the coin was more dull as it was made from bronze giving a more reddish tone.

Left to right: old design, new design

It has a rather unique shape for a coin; instead of being a circular coin, the loonie is a regular undecagon which means a perfect 11-sided figure with unreeded edges and on the upper half of the coin is the Canadian maple leaf. This is somehow a new feature that was used to prevent counterfeit.

Its usefulness high as it represent 1 dollar and you can actually get something useful with this amount of money. For instance there are canned foods that can cost less than a $1. I have seen frozen juices costing around 77 cents and cheap instant noodles around 45 cents. It is also the price of items in some dollar stores. These stores have quite a lot of articles at $1 prior to current taxes set at 13%. It is also the coin you need to rent the airport luggage trolley at Pearson airport.

As of today, dollar stores have changed with price hikes. Very places sell items at $1, most of them are around $1.25 or more. It is also the most common coin to use when tipping at a restaurant or even at the barber shop. As for me I use it very often during my laundry days which cost $1.25 and these machines accept only the loonie and quarter as exact change. Prior to 2009, the library had machines that allowed students to top up their library card (which was retired so that student will use their student card only) with a minimum of $1 and the loonie was the perfect coin for the job. It was sufficiently enough to print a short essay and not too much that one would have the feeling that he or she overcharged the card.

Besides of dollar stores, the loonie still cannot can you anything consistent even a small coffee at a coffee shop. The only item one could get is one of those small donut balls or pastries which at Tim Hortons are called Tim Bits. The cheapest small coffee in general cost slightly above $1.

Unlike other coins, it is very rare to see someone who has a huge amount of loonies despite the coin also have different reverse designs for various commemorations. I own only one of the special designs they made for the loonie and that was for the Montréal Canadiens (an ice hockey team) 100th anniversary.

The Quarter - 25­­­­­¢

The Quarter - 25­­­­­¢

The quarter or 25 cents coin is the last coin in the cents category but not the last for the Canadian currency and its name derives from the fact that it is a quarter of a dollar which is 25 cents. It is the third coin made using nickel as the plating metal and is perhaps the most used cent coin by society. It still uses nickel plating, thinner than the nickel an has reeded edge like the dime.


I have to mention that the quarter's reverse is a caribou but it is not the only reverse used. There have been a lot of different pictures over many years. They use it to celebrate various commemorative events like remembrance day, 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics and many more. To me there are two different types: one makes use of engraving only and the other makes use of both engraving and colour. Unfortunately I do not have everything as I had to use them, later I regretted of doing so because they were quite unique and they looked quite nice.

Quarters have definitely more uses than the other coins I already mentioned. I use it for my laundry and so does the people who use coin-operated laundry places. It is also the type of coin one would use to "rent" a shopping cart at some supermarkets. At the university it is the price for one page of coloured printing. There are many people say that the usefulness of the quarter is due to the fact that 25 seems a "nice" relatively big round number. However I would say it is the fact that we find it easier to count in terms of 5's or 10's. Therefore even the nickel or dime would have such usefulness.

The Dime - 10¢

The Dime - 10¢

The dime or the 10 cents of the Canadian dollar is next and its etymology comes from the French word dime which means tithe and in turn means a tenth. So essentially the dime is a tenth of a dollar. It is also a shiny coin which uses nickel plating. It is also the lightest coin; weighing almost as half as the Nickel and thinnest coin; even thinner than the penny.

We have the usual Queen Elizabeth II on the reverse and on the obverse is a schooner notably the Bluenose. I do not know much about this particular ship but I know that it must have a very important part in Canadian history for it to be on its currency.

Unlike the two previous coins I mentioned earlier, the dime has a reeded edge. Going back to its physical features, this coin is slightly larger than a TTC token, a special coin used in the Toronto mass transit system. As for the thickness the dime surprisingly thinness makes it a very inconvenient coin in my opinion because it can slip through small cracks quite easily. It was also quite frustrating to use in vending machines. Due to its small size, some machines find it hard to detect that it is a perfectly legit coin.

Left: to Right The Penny, TTC token, The Dime

With the dime, the only thing one can get on campus is a one black and white printed or photocopied page. Therefore its relative value is quite debatable for a student. Being short of 10 cents to print a paper might be crucial. This never happened to me because I always have more than enough whenever I had to do those kind of tasks. Again like the nickel, being 10 cents short will be quite problematical and it will most probably not overlooked by many sellers and perhaps the buyers too.

The Nickel - 5¢

The Nickel - 5¢

We now move one step up the Canadian currency and towards the nickel or the 5 cents. Its name comes from the fact that the coin contains Nickel which makes it a very shiny coin. Like the penny, the nickel uses the metal mostly in the coating process. It is also heavier and quite thicker too but not by much.

The nickel itself has a beaver on its reverse and the reverse bears the face of the Queen just like the penny. It is also in my opinion the coin which has a very polished circular edge in the Canadian coins. It is almost the same as the penny when new. I say new because unlike the one cent, this five cents coin, does not seem to turn dull easily over time.

If you are short by 5 cents, this will not be easily overlooked by the sellers. Similarly it most likely that you will not say keep the change if you were to be returned 5 cents. I still have an impressive amount of nickels in a bag and an interesting fact is the 5 cent is the first Canadian coin I have seen when my relatives visited us. I do not really remember what impressed me but perhaps it is the shiny aspect of it.

The nickel can be still found at the bottom of fountains but is mostly common to see the coins on tip plates along with other coins. In terms value a 5 cent represents the cost of a plastic bag at any supermarket. It was introduced and imposed a few years back because of environmental concern.

The Penny - 1¢

The Penny - 1¢

The penny or the one cent of the Canadian dollar holds the smallest denomination in the currency. You would think that having the smallest value would make it the smallest coin but it is not. Because of this reason, this particular coin feels rather big and heavy in your wallet or purse.

It has a copper appearance despite not made entirely of copper. The modern penny uses copper is the plating. The latter is not my favourite colour for coins because when copper gets dirt, it looks horrible almost like tar. More on the coin's appearance, on the reverse there are two maple leafs on a twig and on the current obverse is Queen Elizabeth II.

Generally, the penny is not regarded with a favourable eye by the public although it is a fountain's treasure. You could go to every fountain and you would see a large amount of these coins lying at the bottom. It's not surprising due to its almost "worthless" value thus people have no qualms in tossing them but sometimes you could find other coins. Personally I do not like pennies very much because I get too much of it and to make it "useful" I need 100 of these coins to make a dollar. There was a point in time that I had 376 pennies which seems quite a lot but that's only $3.76 just enough for a trip on the TTC bus and 76 cents to spare.

When coming to transactions, you can be either on the winning or the losing side. On one hand when you are a penny short, some sellers are willing to accept this shortcoming and ignore it. And on the other hand, you have those who insist to have the exact amount regardless of one penny less. The same can be said on the buyers point of view as you can tell them to keep the change. I have no problem is saying that when it's a penny to be returned because I use to round to the nearest 5 or 10 cents. Some cashiers can be jerks too. I remembered my bill was $4.81 when buying a sandwich. I handed $5.00 and the change I got back was 19 pennies; which was a lot to carry. I eventually made him taste his own medicine a few days later when I bought a lunch set for $7.75 and I paid the cent part in pennies.

In March 2012, the Canadian Government said that they would stop the minting of the penny as it would help the economy. This action would reach its ultimate fate in May 2013 when the coin will be no more in circulation. I have heard numerous views about this decision. Some said it will be a good idea because it it helps to have  better control on prices but some argued that it would make everything more expensive as everything will be ending with a '0' or '5'.

Money, Money, Money - The Canadian Dollar

"Money don't grow on trees" my parents say to me all time. But won't it be fun it were real. Okay let's talk about money for a while because I believe that it is quite an interesting topic. Money has always been present since the middle ages with trade. In the first university business course; particularly economics, money was known as the power of buying and selling. We use money everyday, or even every second money is involved in various ways.

But let's think of it for a moment, because there are many inequalities in the financial world. Currency is what makes the difference. If all countries of the world had the same currency there will never be a distinction about rich and poor countries. With currency there is comparison. Is it a good or a bad thing? 

There are many currencies around the world and I used. Each one of them was unique and because of this I cannot really tell which one is the best currency to use. These different currencies I used are notably:

- Canadian Dollar (CAD / $)
- Deutsch Mark (DEM / DM)
- Euro (EUR / €)
- French Franc (FRF / ₣)
- Great Britain Pound Sterling (GBP / £)
- Hong Kong Dollar (HKD / $)
- Mauritian Rupee (MUR / Rs)
- Singaporean Dollar (SGD / $)

In this blog, I will write about the currency I am currently using and have been using over the past years; the Canadian Dollar (CAD / $). I will cover the coins and the notes as well as how each one of them has been used in my life, its appearance, its buying power, its everyday usage by myself and society as a whole and more. If you want a more detailed history of the Canadian dollar, you can check wikipedia; it covers a lot about its history and other details I did not cover but here I am giving my personal impressions of this currency so I might be a bit biased about each on of them. However I will try my best to be as fair as possible.