bromac4

Something I read in one of the posts,because of my advanced age I can't remember which one, started me thinking about the success of Canada replacing low denomination paper money with coins.Although there was some initial resistance we have now reached the stage where if you present an old $1.00 bill to a cashier in their teens or early twenties they won't know what to do with it because they have never seen a circulating paper dollar and in most cases aren't even aware that they ever existed.

When you consider the difference in life span between a coin and a paper bill the wole thing seems like a really good idea.

As a little aside, the Canadian circulating one dollar coin was originally intended to feature the old design of the voyageur and his native guide in a canoe found on most silver dollars since its introduction in 1935.The problem was that the dies were lost in transit from Ottawa to the mint in Winnipeg where most circulating coins are struck. As a security measure the mint went to the back up design featuring the swimming Loon.Thus the common name for the coin "loonie".The loonie was introduced in 1986 followed 10 years later by a 2 dollar coin featuring polar bears. It was hard to turn polar bear into something so the coin became known as the "toonie". I have heard rumours of a 5 dollar coin but nothing definite.

As I've said before I'm sure most exprienced collectors are aware of all this but it may be of some interest to casual collectors.

Bill