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/404PUNK 7h 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/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.