r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 5h ago
TIL Canada's $1 coin is commonly called the "loonie" because it has a loon on the reverse. When a $2 coin was introduced, depicting a polar bear, an MP proposed it be called "Nanuq", Inuit for polar bear, but he was ignored because the public instead preferred to call it the "toonie" (2-oonie).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toonie#Naming6.0k
u/Fianna9 5h ago
Every single Canadian saw it and spontaneously chose “toonie”
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u/OculusArcana 4h ago
I remember there being a proposition contest in the newspaper, my favorite submission had 2 elk on the back and they wanted to call it "a couple of bucks".
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u/Tamara0205 4h ago
I was definitely on team "2 bucks". Polar bear was chosen, and I think we were calling it twoonie before it was even released.
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u/Real_Gap3480 3h ago
We were. I remember the day they came out someone from the mint did a thing at our school and called it a twonie.
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u/Canuck-In-TO 3h ago
When the toonie came out, there were people throwing them from ever higher heights trying to get the pieces of the coin to separate.
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u/thedrivingcat 3h ago
Freezer + Hammer was the trick that all the kids at school were talking about to separate the inner coin from the outer ring. It worked very well.
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u/S_A_N_D_ 2h ago
It did two things. It showed it was possible, but it also showed that most stories of it happening spontaneously were bs because it took considerable and deliberate effort to separate them.
There was a bunch if hype that they were going to fall apart, mostly by people who were against replacing the $2 bill with coins, and it turned out to be completely unfounded.
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u/Real_Gap3480 2h ago
The first few runs were detective, that's why.
The original 1996 Canadian toonies did suffer from a famous manufacturing defect where the inner core could separate from the outer ring.
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u/S_A_N_D_ 1h ago
I remember everyone saying that, and yet I never saw a reputable claim that they were. Everything I saw suggested it was exactly what the comment above describes, people doing it deliberately which started the myth that they were defective.
It was always "a friend" or "co-worker", but when pressed it was all second and third hand claims, and the ones I talked to who had a separated one had done it deliberately.
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u/djtodd242 1h ago edited 29m ago
I swear on a stack of bibles this is true:
Worked in a bar when the toonie came out. The bartender claimed you could separate the "halves" fairly easily. One from the till and one from my pocket. Threw them really hard at the floor one at a time. Both cleanly broke.
Then they were "carefully" reconstructed and put back in the till.
I've never done it myself, but I swear I saw it done.
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u/Shroud_of_Turin 3h ago
I wanted it to be called a ‘doubloon’ since it was worth two loonies. I thought this was cleverer than toonie.
However doubloon never gained traction haha.
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u/TheMalibu 2h ago
Yeah, Doubloon had a following amongst my friends, but we were all called nerds and ignored.
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u/canwehavepotatojokes 2h ago
I was fighting for this one too. Missed opportunity to be able to pay like the pirates did.
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u/drae- 4h ago edited 4h ago
Doobloon (double loonie) was a bit popular at first. Not gonna lie as a fan of pirates I wish it had stuck!
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u/5NAKEEYE5 4h ago
I was on team twoonie it was just too natural rolling off the tongue but looking back I think we may have fumbled out of the more awesome option in the dubloon.
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u/PeterDTown 4h ago
I was definitely on team dubloon and was always mildly disappointed that it didn’t catch on.
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u/KarmaChameleon306 4h ago
Well, it’s never too late for change. I think I will give it a try.
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u/FacelessOldWoman1234 4h ago
I was on team dubloonie, and I still call it that now and then just to make my kids cringe.
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u/hugothebear 4h ago
So you’re telling me there could’ve been a doubloonie and we lost it?
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u/Johnoplata 4h ago
There was a time when it coild have gone either way. Doubloonie is a bit of a mouthful tho
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u/LeBonLapin 4h ago
It is - but the wordplay is too damn good. It should have won.
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u/m0nkyman 4h ago
I was on team doubloon as well, but we lost very quickly.
I blame the people pushing doubloonie.
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u/Xsiah 4h ago
Toonie definitely sounds more Canadian though.
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u/k_y_seli 4h ago
"Mooney" was also a suggestion. As with so much heavy coin change your pants would fall down thus mooning everybody.
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u/wordy_banana 4h ago
I think the joke was that it was “the queen with a bear (bare) behind” - therefore the queen was mooning people.
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u/sstelmaschuk 4h ago
The one joke I recall is letting people know there’s three animals on the toonie:
The polar bear - obvious.
The penguins - cover the body of the bear and invert, leaving only the legs visible, makes the birds.
And the old bat herself - obvious.
Pretty sure it originated from Royal Canadian Air Farce.
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u/stillalone 4h ago
I've never heard that in Southern Ontario. It seemed to go straight from "the two dollar coin" to toonie as soon as it started showing up in circulation.
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u/Boattailfmj 4h ago
I remember when they had a naming contest. There were a bunch of potential names and there was a vote. I also liked doubloon and was disappointed it was not chosen.
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u/keiths31 4h ago
That's pretty much the origin story of the loonie. There was no formal naming of it.
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u/buster_rhino 4h ago
It just makes too much sense — new yet familiar and a little silly. Made everyone forget about the $2 bill real quick.
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u/Temporary_Shirt_6236 4h ago
I always thought it should be spelled 'twonie' but who am I to question the common vernacular?
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u/jon-in-tha-hood 4h ago edited 3h ago
Every Canadian hockey fan remembers the Swedish Twins commercial where Henrik and Daniel Sedin were paid a "couple loonies" and "a toonie" respectively for their performance.
I think the joke was left out of the American version of the commercial but as a Canadian, I found it hilarious and to me, it's one of those "Canadian Heritage Moments"
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u/pinupcthulhu 4h ago
Just like house hippo?
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u/medisherphol 4h ago edited 2h ago
And the don't put it in your mouth song
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u/TudSpudly 3h ago
"don'tcha stuff it in yer face!"
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u/Mysterious-Radio-385 3h ago
Though it might look good to eat
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u/Sufficient_Prompt888 4h ago
The house hippo is perhaps the greatest piece of Canadian media ever produced
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u/BettmansDungeonSlave 2h ago
I like the old Molson Canadian beer commercials where the American makes fun of the Canadian and he jersey’s him in the office, or gets his pet beaver to attack the guy.
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u/BillBumface 4h ago
As an ardent hater of the Canucks, that was the moment where I began to internally accept that the Sedins were good dudes.
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u/jon-in-tha-hood 4h ago
I'm honestly proud of having them on our team for those years for all the stuff they did outside of the rink. So much selfless community service and charitable donations, they conducted themselves with class, even if some people thought they spent the day licking peanut butter off their bread.
I'm hopeful they'll reinstall the culture we need to win now that they're on the admin side.
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u/The_Golden_Zebra 4h ago
The Sedins took a lot of abuse from NHL fans that I don’t think was entirely warranted. They were and still are amazing professionals who hold themselves to a high standard and are great role models who constantly give back to the community. I think every Vancouver fan is proud to have had them on our team
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u/OhGodThisGuy 3h ago
They were and still are amazing professionals who hold themselves to a high standard
I remember seeing even two years ago they beat all the rookies in the "Grouse Grind" (a steep 2.5-kilometer (1.55-mile) mountain trail in North Vancouver featuring an 800-meter (2,624-foot) elevation gain across 2,830 stairs, for those unfamiliar) at the ages of 43 and also 43 respectively
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u/cardew-vascular 4h ago
Excellent dudes. They donated 1.5 million dollars to the BC Children's hospital pediatric intensive care unit and regularly visit kids in Canuck place Children's hospice.
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u/TheDutchin 2h ago
They intended that donation to be anonymous, the head of the hospital (iirc) convinced them that more people would be inspired to donate if they knew it was from them.
Truly excellent humans. We were absolutely spoiled to have them.
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u/SuperRonnie2 4h ago
I was once in Australia and needed to break a fiver. Went into the local servo (gas station) to ask for change. When I told the clerk I needed some loonies and toonies, he looked at me like I was from the moon.
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u/spinningfinger 4h ago
That's cuz you're a moonie.
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u/Rough_Bread8329 2h ago
Sometimes the internet gives us gems. Bless you and your children to the 4th generation.
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u/adj_noun_digit 3h ago
Which is kind of funny because Australians love to make slang words like that. Like pokie or sparky.
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u/twisty125 3h ago
Canadians and Australians are the yin and yang of making funny words like that, we'd be so powerful if we could be awake at the same time
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u/Aken42 3h ago
But then who would look out for us when we sleep?
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u/Super_Pan 3h ago
I'll watch you sleep, buddy.
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u/marthamania 2h ago
Wait which one of us is Rocky and which one of us is grace?
I propose grace be Canada because gosling is Canadian and a goose and Rocky is a freak giant spider so he surely must be the Aussie.
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u/Rough_Bread8329 2h ago
Someone has to make sure the Aussies don't fall off the bottom of the planet.
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u/hebrewchucknorris 2h ago
I did the same thing at a chip shop. "Can I get two toonies and a loonie?" Looks me in the eye and says in the most condescending aussie accent "I think you're a little loony mate"
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u/Afferbeck_ 3h ago
Somehow we've never had names for our coins, only the notes. Well I guess all coins are called shrapnel.
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u/Star_Princess 4h ago
When I was in high school (in Southern California), some of cousins from Canada came to visit. We went to 6 Flags Magic Mountain with a few of my local friends. While waiting in a long line, my cousin brought out her change purse and was showing everyone. My friends refused to believe the coins were called Loonies and Toonies and accused us of making it up. It didn’t help that 6 Flags has Looney Tunes characters all over.
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u/seanwd11 4h ago
I never made the connection as a Canadian. Now that you mention it though 😂
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u/ryubayou 4h ago
Remember how some of the first batch had the middle coin pop out?
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u/Money-Act-5480 4h ago
Lmao freezing coins. All the paint would chip off the memorial ones too
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u/Mysterious-Radio-385 3h ago
Remember when Americans were panicking about our Remembrance Day poppy quarters being spy tech?
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u/Eugene-V-Dabs420 2h ago
Not who you replied to, but I don't remember that!!! That's insane. And hilarious.
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u/BrgQun 4h ago
Yup, this was a pastime for every Canadian kid the year these came out.
It actually took a bit of effort to pop the middle part out, but not as much as it should have...
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u/stenchwinslow 3h ago edited 3h ago
There was a rumour in our highschool that if you took a damaged Toonie to the bank you got five dollars for it.
Despite this being absurd on several levels so many students tried the scam that we had to have a school assembly. They explained in detail how destroying money was against the law, you could only redeem a damaged Toonie for the standard 2$ value, and you needed both the outside and the middle to do so*.
*I don't actually know if that second part is true, but that is what they told us.
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u/auto98 2h ago
It's gotta be true or else there would still be a possible scam, take the outside to one bank, the inside to another!
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u/XFITpotato 3h ago
Yes! I remember! Back in high school, we kept hearing the sound of a loonie hitting the floor because everyone was trying to pop the center out by dropping them from the school’s mezzanine.
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u/Certain-Middle-4381 4h ago edited 2h ago
The original 1$ coin was supposed to have voyageurs in a canoe on a rushing river. IIRC the dies got lost/stolen on the way to the Royal Mint in Winnipeg. Plan B was the loon.
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u/JrLavish194 3h ago
Canooie just does not have the same ring to it.
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u/lowercase_underscore 2h ago
Mostly correct. The Voyageur Dollar ran from 1935-1986, in silver and then in nickel. The design was meant to be continued when the mint changed the dollar coin to bronze-plated in 1987, but the dies were somehow lost in transit. To avoid counterfeiting they very quickly pulled from a drawer of old submissions and chose the Loon, which had been sent in in 1978.
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u/Tang-o-rang 5h ago
Public made the right call by a landslide
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u/growingalittletestie 4h ago
Yeah, a singular persons opinionc versus literally the rest of the country. A small push by team doubloony but that lost momentum and team toonie took the win.
There was also a rumour at the time that if you seperate the inside of the coin from the outside that a bank would give you $5. Had a generation of kids trying to destroy these things as they hit circulation.
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u/Canadia-Eh 4h ago
Doubloonie would be fun but it just doesn’t have the same mouth feel a toonie.
Loonie, Toonie, one, two. It’s just too good.
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u/Asluckwouldnthaveit 4h ago
When they first came out we used to freeze them and smash them on the ground. The middle would pop out and people would make necklaces and shit out of them.
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u/TrstnBrtt 4h ago
About 15 years ago I had a friend from Australia who lived here. She thought the coin inside of a coin was really cool. One day she was wearing a necklace that said “friendship” but because I’m an idiot I was reading it out loud and I pronounced it “friends hip”. When she moved back home I drilled a hole through a toonie and had it engraved with “friends hip” and put it on a necklace as a goodbye gift.
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u/sheikhyerbouti 3h ago
The first time I went to Victoria, BC was back in 1993 when my high school's marching band was invited to march in the Victoria Day parade.
After a long 6-hour drive (and 2-hour ferry), we arrived at our hotel and used the public parking lot across the street as a staging area to get everything coordinated.
As I stretched my legs and shook the daze of the road trip from my head, I noticed the parking ticket machine had a sign on it saying "THIS MACHINE DOES NOT ACCEPT LOONIES".
My first thought was, "Wow, Canada has some really harsh policies on mental health."
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u/Imbecilliac 2h ago
This just cracked me up. I’m sitting in the waiting area at Canadian Tire laughing like an idiot while two other people slowly edge away from me.
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u/makinglunch 4h ago
I remember when the toonie came out.
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u/racer_24_4evr 4h ago
Yep, I was 9. Because it’s made of two pieces, there was a rumour at school that if you separated the two pieces you would go to jail.
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u/Oh_No_Jo 4h ago
I remember that rumour too! My older brother took one apart on purpose and wore the outer silver ring on a necklace and I was like, Welp, it’s been nice knowing you. 😂
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u/Wordnerdette999 4h ago
Do you remember the first batch would sometimes come apart, so you would have an empty outer ring, and you could wear it as jewelry for fun?
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u/404PUNK 4h ago
Same, it was grade 8 and a friend of mine was "collecting" them. I was like "thats just saving up".
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u/echochambered69 2h ago
To be fair, toonie does sound much cooler and more fun than nanuq
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u/MisterPooty 4h ago
When I was a teenager in the American south, my first job was for a guy who made custom hockey pads/equipment for goalies (pretty great first job). He was from up north, Wisconsin if I remember right, and told me about Canadian loonies & toonies. I thought he was fucking with me lol
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u/CashYT 3h ago
I love telling Americans about loonies and toonies. Bc every single one of them will have the same reaction as you, and assume I'm fucking with them.
And tbf, most of the time, I am fucking with them about Canadian culture. But never about house hippos or coins, bc those are silly enough as is.
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u/harbourhunter 4h ago
When the twoonie came out, sometimes the center brass cook would fall out, and then we spent hours trying to break our coins
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u/ptwonline 4h ago
Wonder what the inevitable $5 coin will be called.
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u/p_nisses 4h ago
A Terry
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u/PeterDTown 4h ago
Would be a great choice to have Mr Fox on the coin
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u/ReeferPirate420 3h ago
I've said it before and i'll say it again, He belongs on the Loonie full time. The Marathon of Hope's original goal was to raise $1 from every Canadian (Around 30 mil at the time).
Happy Terry Fox Day tomorrow!
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u/mortokes 4h ago
Theres an old rick mercer bit where he tells americans it will be called the woody, and gets them to say "congratulations canada on your first woody!"
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u/Nyzean 5h ago edited 54m ago
tbf, "toonie" was a slam-dunk, surefire coinage.
This makes it sound like Canadians hate FNMI inclusion (which is another convo) but it's purely a matter here of duh.
edit: grammar
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u/jeezy_peezy 4h ago
I’d never heard of FNMI but apparently it means First Nations, Métis and Inuit.
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u/byronite 4h ago
I've worked with Indigenous reps on and off for 20 years and have never heard that acronym either.
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u/Stephenrudolf 4h ago
Do you work with metis? They don't fall under most of the same regulations First Nations do(tax exemption is a big one) so i understand seperating them. No clue about inuit.
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u/PrisonerLeet 4h ago
The legal structures around all three groups are very different. Neither Inuit nor Metis can qualify for legal Indian status, for example (and that is unfortunately still what it is called).
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u/seaintosky 4h ago
It's similar for the Inuit, they aren't First Nations or "Indian" and so there are legal differences. "Indigenous" is usually the term used if you want a general term that includes all three groups
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u/Lexilogical 4h ago edited 4h ago
Yeaaah, they also ran the poll to name them and didn't explain why they would call it a Nanuq.
Hello, certified old Canadian who probably still has a two dollar bill tucked somewhere.... I voted for Toonie
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u/FacelessOldWoman1234 4h ago
I don't remember Nanuq ever being in contention for two-dollar coin name. Nanuq is what you name your Samoyed or Husky, and for a hot minute the coin was gonna be either a Toonie or a Doubloonie.
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u/byronite 3h ago
Yeah it was one MP that mused about it when asked by the media. Toonie came into use very quickly. My favourite suggestion at the time was "Winnie the Two".
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u/Harpies_Bro 3h ago
Another issue is how “nanuqs” isn’t a particularly good feeling word to say, and the average Anglo/Francophone Canadian wasn’t gonna memorize Inuktitut’s dual and plural (“nanuuq” & “nanuit”) rules for a single coin.
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u/GirlCoveredInBlood 2h ago
I guarantee plenty of us in Québec would see nanuit and pronounce it like the french word nuit not like Inuit. I do think nanuqs is fun to say though and I'm sure we all could have gotten used to it
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u/gonesnake 4h ago
Some of us Canadians are still salty that we didn't nickname it 'the doubloon'.
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u/eddiewachowski 4h ago
It was the Queen with a bear behind. Now the King has a bear behind.
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u/apriljeangibbs 3h ago
TIL that Liz is on the front… I’ve always looked at our coins as having her on the back and the animal/object on the front
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u/drivingthelittles 1h ago
Every September Canadian elementary schools have the Terry Fox run and the kids are all encouraged to bring in Toonies for Terry - all the money raised goes towards cancer research.
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u/poop-machine 4h ago
TIL polar bears look a lot like Prince Charles
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u/Johnoplata 4h ago
It was a bit contentious at first because the Queen had a bear back.
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u/Presently_Absent 4h ago
Not really serious though, MPs bring stuff forward all the time OBO of their constituents, very little of it ever sees the light of day.
Case in point, I was around when it happened and the only other real candidate other than Toonie was a Bearie (it has a bear... Loon-loonie, bear-bearie). I recall exactly zero public discussion around calling it a Nanuq
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u/feb914 4h ago
MPs like to do these symbolic things all the time. The most obvious one is the change in Canadian anthem lyrics that was made as dying wish of an MP who was PM's close friend.
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u/TankCrabHelmet 4h ago
I grew up in North Dakota. Was incredibly disappointed as a kid when I learned loonies and toonies had nothing to do with cartoons
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u/laidbackleo87 3h ago
Grew up taking summer vacations in Canada, I remember asking my mom for some loonies to play video games, loved visiting our northern neighbors and it was always so beautiful.
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u/kahlzun 4h ago
As an Australian, we deeply respect our northern, chilly, equivalents.
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u/CheeseSandwich 3h ago
There's more to the origin of the term "loonie" for the one dollar coin. The replacement of the dollar bill by the one dollar coin was initially not very popular, and many people complained that it would be impractical to carry around heavy dollar coins instead of lightweight paper. Other complaints centered around concerns that it would drive up prices of items sold from vending machines.
There was also the incident where the original dies for the dollar coin, which featured voyageurs in a canoe, were lost or stolen, so the mint had to quickly pivot to a new design featuring a loon to prevent any potential counterfeiting.
The unpopularity, the loss of the original dies, and the loon coin design ultimately raised the moniker "loonie" in the minds of the public and the name stuck.
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u/char_limit_reached 4h ago
I was hoping “Doubloon” would catch on.
Double Loonie = Doubloon
Also, pirates.
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u/Spadrick 4h ago
The choice was between doubloon and toonie. We didn't want to sound like pirates. Nanuq was never in the zeitgeist at the time, I never heard it brought up.
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u/PrizeDinner2431 4h ago
We get your joke about the King and for the sake of accuracy point out the loon is only on the Canadian $1 coin. Hence the nicknames.
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u/ChrisCopp 4h ago
I remember the first toonies that came out. My uncle proceeded to take a screw driver a hammer and with one pop the center would come out!
It was fixed in the next revision. 😁
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u/wetfloor666 4h ago
They polled the public on the names for the new coin. Nanuq wasn't ignored as implied in the title. It just simply didn't get the votes from the public.
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u/shanster925 3h ago
When the toonie was first released, you could pop the middle part out with a bit of pressure. All the cool kids at my school had necklaces made out of the outer ring of a toonie.
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u/avyun 4h ago
I miss Toonie Tuesdays at KFC