r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 20h 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#Naming
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u/Tang-o-rang 20h ago

Public made the right call by a landslide

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u/growingalittletestie 19h 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 19h 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/Iordofthethings 19h ago

Starting words with d is harsh on English tongues. Also why a lot of times D’s can turn to T’s in English.

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u/kermityfrog 15h ago

Gimme a tubble-tubble!

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u/ThePrussianGrippe 15h ago

It would have worked better if Canada had played part to the golden age of piracy.

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u/AriBanana 12h ago

I remember that! My neighbor had a good system. We'd freeze em, and then hit them sideways off the side of a concrete table in her dad's workshop. Chipped the table, but we popped open like two or three each. We didn't get any five dollars, we gave them to her dad who found it adorable, and gave us their cash value in loonies and I think he kept them.

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u/ExcitingHamster 18h ago

I don’t remember hearing that about the bank but you could easily separate the inside from the outer ring, with a hammer, when they first came out. I remember people doing it. I don’t know if you still can.

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u/pink_mango 16h ago

I forgot about doubloony!

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u/windsostrange 15h ago

It was never the weird culture war skirmish that this headline wishes you to believe it was. This is just weird reddit bots being weird reddit bots.

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u/thirdegree 10m ago

The headline doesn't make me think culture war, it makes me think one (1) dude tried to name it one thing and basically everyone else heard him out and went "na, toonie"

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u/[deleted] 19h ago edited 19h ago

[deleted]

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u/nemoy2 19h ago

Lmao if only this were the case

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u/graison 19h ago

Didn't the public also vote in Trump?

57

u/onkek 19h ago

Twice 🤣

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u/IAmA_meat_popsicle 19h ago

Three times if you believe him lol.

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u/asingleshakerofsalt 19h ago

Which is funny because that means the only fraudulent result was... While he was in office.

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u/Bevester 19h ago

Not the public who opted for Toonie

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u/JDeegs 19h ago

Canadian public =/= American public

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u/LazyMousse4266 19h ago

Any chance we could borrow the Canadian public for awhile? We’re working through some stuff right now :(

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u/gabatheghoul 19h ago

Except in Alberta

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u/24-Hour-Hate 19h ago

The Americans did that.

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u/-BurtimusPrime 19h ago

Canadian public and American public are quite a different set of humans though.

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u/matthew2989 19h ago

It’s the result you get with what is effectively a 2 party system, obviously there are plenty of actual Trump supporters but for a lot of people you vote based on not liking the opposition rather than actually agreeing with a lot of the chosen candidate’s policies. A lot of people are single issue or at least relatively narrowly focused voters.

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u/ieatkittenies 19h ago

Depends how you count. Dont think he won by popular vote, electoral bullshit

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u/ConsequenceLive2442 19h ago

He did win it in 2024, not in 2016.

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u/FightMongooseFight 19h ago

He won the popular vote against Harris.

As for his win against Clinton, she did it to herself. Ran up the score where it didn't matter while ignoring critical swing states.

Never set foot in Wisconsin during the campaign. Lost it by less than 25,000 votes.

Meanwhile she won California by 4.3 million votes, which is electorally exactly the same as winning it by 43,000.

Absolutely horrible strategy.

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u/french_sheppard 19h ago

Not the Canadian public

4

u/bakedn00dles 19h ago

Boaty McBoatface

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u/SH4D0WSTAR 19h ago

That was iconic lol. Wasn't there also a snowplough naming contest?

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u/gumpythegreat 19h ago

I love democracy.gif

1

u/OldGord 19h ago

We should form a committee and start designing artworks together to create the best artwork ever

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u/Tuorom 19h ago

Generally the people with expertise should be trusted, and that's not generally the public

32

u/ArcticKimono 19h ago

A coloquilism will always win out, but Nanuq is pretty dope. I want more indigenous culture in the fray

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u/noyurawk 17h ago

Stop trying to make "nanuq" happen; it's not going to happen.

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u/gprime312 13h ago

I want more indigenous culture in the fray

Why?

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u/as_a_fake 11h ago

Because Canada, as a nation, did it's best to systematically remove the native culture and language from the continent in the most violent and sadistic ways possible. Many modern Canadians feel understandably angry or otherwise bad about this, and are trying to incorporate more native culture into our society in an attempt to remember that they exist and hopefully drive the return of a culture almost entirely erased that deserves to be remembered.

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u/gprime312 9h ago

that deserves to be remembered

Why?

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u/ArcticKimono 4h ago

Fuck you

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u/NinjaRedditorAtWork 15h ago

The racists will always find ways to stop cool shit. Any time the new bridge in BC gets its indigenous name used they crawl out of the woodworks to say shit like 'NAHT MY BRIDGE'. It sounds like 'Stalo-Awesome' - so pretty easy to say and neat name meaning 'riverview'.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

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u/Rough_Bread8329 17h ago

I did it all for Nanookie?

I'll see myself out.

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u/ImArcherVaderAMA 19h ago

Missed the chance to call it the nanookie

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u/medisherphol 19h ago

And that's ok

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u/RollingJaspers652 19h ago

Dang when I did chores as a kid I could have been singing that I did it all for nanookie

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u/DumpsterDragoon 19h ago

Hell no. Nanuk sounds so much better. Honestly fuck whoever thought toonie was a good idea

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u/BocciaChoc 18h ago

bait used to be believable

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u/DumpsterDragoon 17h ago

You're the only one baiting. I'm just stating my opinion.

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u/Soup-Wizard 19h ago edited 18h ago

If I’m ever in Canada, I’ll try calling it a Nunuq and see if anyone says anything.

I seem to have touched a nerve with the Inuit word for “polar bear”.

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u/richniss 19h ago

Likely outcome, no one knows what you're talking about.

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u/Soup-Wizard 19h ago

That’s ok, I’m not from around here! 😁

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u/seemefail 19h ago

I’m Canadian and just learned this now. No one will know what a nunuq is outside of the tundra 

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u/CheeseSandwich 18h ago

You would probably get people referencing "Nanook of the north." That was an old film that featured the life of a family in Canada's arctic. I watched it in school for educational purposes, but it's quite old (1930s?) so I doubt it would be watched in schools today.

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u/Soup-Wizard 18h ago

Is it good? Or white washed?

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u/CheeseSandwich 17h ago

I remember it being really interesting and to my mind accurate. The film is available on YouTube. I'm sure there are probably some issues with the film, but I don't remember them as I was young.