I'm 47, so usually the Canadian was considered inferior, but the sizes are the same. I don't know a whole lot about canadian coins in general, and in particular the pre-1950 stuff. I know their gov't is more responsive and changed the silver to levels like .800 and .500 to adapt, and the quarters of the 70's era were magnetic unlike our C/N ones. The nickel was like nickel and now steel. I know they had large cents and such. Did Canada copy the sizes/ denominations of US coins ? How could that not be the case ? Did the US copy the Loonie from Canada and forget to cancel the $1 bill, for the Sac dollar ?
Canada did not have her own coinage until around 1876. Up to that time she made do with tokens, some British coins and to a large extent US coins. So when they began coining their own it made sense to continue using the coin sizes people were familiar with. They did stick with the higher Sterling fineness on the silver coins instead of our 900 fine standard. That was a holdover from the British influence. While the fineness did drop in the early 20th century it only dropped to 800 fine and not the 500 fine and then zero that took place in England. Britain lost their silver around 1920 while Canada held theirs until 1968, later than we did. Yes and no, the Loonie copied our SBA but they didn't make the mistake of keeping the same color as the other coins, and they eliminated their dollar note after correctly realizing that that was one of the major reason the SBA failed. After 20 years we took the clue from Canada, england and most other countries that the color needed to be different, and after about another twenty maybe we will realize that the note needs to be dropped as well. (Don't want to move too fast you know.)
Thanks I was running on memory. I knew the first Canadian coins were 1858 but I am more familiar with the copper coinage and after 58/59 there was no further coinage til 1876. I wasn't sure if that held true with the silver coinage or not.
For the modern stuff it might have a lot to do with the vending indurty. Ever notice the Canadian cars look about the same as American cars since most of them are designed in Japan.
Canada didn't just give the SBA "color" to create its Loon dollar-- it also gave the Loon a different alloy, and multiple sides with a smooth edge, rather than making it round with a reeded edge.
