Recently I've been buying Canadian 2 dollar coins. They're pretty nice and don't cost too much, and there aren't so many in the series that you just can't keep up. Here are the ones I have. I know I still need the 1999 polar bear issue. I'm not sure if I need any others.
I LOVE Canadian coins! I have a hoard of roughly 6000 coins from Canada, from 1 Cent to 2 Dollars (date range 1920's to 2014). I have 80 of these 2 Dollar coins, though most of them are dated 1996. I have a few 2000, and one 2005 I think. A bunch of my 1 Dollar coins (about 150) are dated in the 1980's with a few 2012/2013 in there. I assume not many were minted after 2000? I rarely find newer dates at coin shops or online. Just curious.
By the way, this is definitely the year to be buying Canadian Dollars. 0.75 US can buy 1.00 CAD today. Just a few years ago this currency was about a cent behind the US Dollar. My local coin shop currently sells me Canadian dollars for even less than the exchange. I recently bought some paper notes and averaged 0.60 US > 1.00 CAD rate on them.
Yeah, I like them a lot too. They tend to have a lot of nature scenes on them and that's something I like in coins. I think I have one of most of the coins since the 1960s and I'm working on getting the older ones too. The silver dollars get kind of pricey. You're right about the exchange rate. I've been saving a lot of money buying from Canada this year. Many of these 2 dollars were only issued for sets, not in circulation, that's why you don't find them. Generally if you see one of mine that looks really pristine it's probably from a set. They call them specimen coins.
The only older coins I own from 70-80 years ago are the pennies and nickels, which aren't really rare or anything. Many of these I got just included in with new circulating money on ebay and sometimes my coin shop owner won't even care how old unless they have extremely low mintage. I don't have any 80% silver Canadian coins except for a couple toned 1960 quarters.
Some blessed countries got different designs/varieties every year... and others got same boring bimetallic coin for last 20 years during which only 1 year got special issue...