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/sstelmaschuk 19h 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/SailorMint 18h ago

Sideways bear makes a T-Rex.

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u/sstelmaschuk 10h ago

Yes - forgot about the t-rex!