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.