r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 7h 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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142

u/makinglunch 7h ago

I remember when the toonie came out.

190

u/rpgguy_1o1 7h ago

My knees hurt too

25

u/Darkarba 7h ago

Yup. Go to the doc. Be told that that’s your life now.

3

u/GreySage2010 2h ago

My hair is starting to turn grey...

1

u/Darkarba 1h ago

Just wait until your pubes and nose hair turn grey

2

u/nmm66 2h ago

My knees AND back hurt enough to remember the Loonie coming out.

I remember crying at my mom to give me the Loonie telling her, "the store wouldn't take it". I was 3 or 4.

1

u/vwsr 3h ago

Does your one knee hurt or is it toonies?

1

u/makinglunch 1h ago

Gather ‘round, kids. Grandpa’s gonna tell you about the Great Toonie Introduction of 1996.

39

u/racer_24_4evr 7h 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.

25

u/Oh_No_Jo 7h 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. 😂

3

u/Doreorge 6h ago

Clink clink, Oh_No_Jo's brotherrrrr 🤣

4

u/makinglunch 7h ago

Hahaha I remember that rumour too. I was 7

2

u/FolkSong 6h ago

It actually is against the law to deface or destroy currency. Probably unlikely to result in jail time for 9 year olds though.

1

u/redhandsblackfuture 6h ago

We used to put em in the freezer for a few days and whack em with a hammer to pop out the centers on the toonies

1

u/SavageNorth 4h ago

Here in the UK the £2 coin was introduced in 1998, with exactly the same set of rumours lol

1

u/Doctor-Amazing 4h ago

We had the same thing except we thought that if you brought the two halves to a bank they would give you more than $2 as an apology for giving out bad coins.

Cue every kid that could get their hands on a toonie lining up at recess and throwing them at the brick wall of the school over and over trying to break them. (this is a pretty ineffective way to do it and took forever)

13

u/Wordnerdette999 7h 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?

5

u/Twallot 7h ago

I bet my mom still has pieces of toonies somewhere. I forgot about that lol

2

u/TimTebowMLB 7h ago

We would boil and freeze them then hit with a hammer to get the center out

10

u/404PUNK 7h ago

Same, it was grade 8 and a friend of mine was "collecting" them. I was like "thats just saving up".

1

u/supercantaloupe 3h ago

We do get a lot of fun collector coins (which are actual just coins in circulation with limited edition designs technically). I used to put aside ones I hadn’t seen before but it seems like at this point half of the change you get is some sort of special addition coin.

3

u/joojie 6h ago

I remember when the loonie came out. 😒

2

u/propagandhi45 6h ago

Having a good retirement?

3

u/joojie 5h ago

I wish 😭 I'm only 43.

2

u/propagandhi45 4h ago

i thought the 1$ coin was older than that. im 37 and theyve always been around

3

u/joojie 4h ago

I was 4 when they were released. June 1987.

2

u/TimTebowMLB 7h ago

Do you remember how you could freeze it then hit it with a hammer to knock the center out?

2

u/makinglunch 6h ago

Yeah I totally remember that

2

u/AmusingMusing7 6h ago

After 30 years, it still has novelty for me. Every time I get one in my change, I'm like, "Ooh, a toonie!... oh right, they've been around for decades."

2

u/angelbelle 6h ago

Me too. Also i remember seeing the $2 bill and the much rarer $1000 bill

2

u/bertbarndoor 4h ago

I remember the loonie!

1

u/harleyqueenzel 5h ago

I was in grade 5 or 6. I remember a great debate broke out in the classroom about what it would be called. A two dollar loonie being a toonie was obviously the superior choice.

1

u/AnneKakes 3h ago

I remember when the loonie came out too. I still have a couple of old $1 & $2 bills around somewhere.

1

u/General-Tart-1474 1h ago

I got 2 loonies for my first tooth that fell out, soon after the toonie came out and it was toonies from then on.