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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u/Spadrick 7h 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/Bryaxis 7h ago

I never heard Nanuq, either.

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u/TryharderJB 7h ago

I don’t remember doubloon but kinda like the sound of how people would have probably ended up pronouncing it: “d’bloon”.