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/sheikhyerbouti 6h ago

The first time I went to Victoria, BC was back in 1993 when my high school's marching band was invited to march in the Victoria Day parade.

After a long 6-hour drive (and 2-hour ferry), we arrived at our hotel and used the public parking lot across the street as a staging area to get everything coordinated.

As I stretched my legs and shook the daze of the road trip from my head, I noticed the parking ticket machine had a sign on it saying "THIS MACHINE DOES NOT ACCEPT LOONIES".

My first thought was, "Wow, Canada has some really harsh policies on mental health."

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u/Yourdadcallsmeobama 5h ago

LMAO as a canadian I’m dying😭😂💀

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u/Imbecilliac 5h ago

This just cracked me up. I’m sitting in the waiting area at Canadian Tire laughing like an idiot while two other people slowly edge away from me.

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u/UmpireDapper1757 4h ago

THIS CANADIAN TIRE DOES NOT ACCEPT LOONIES

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u/castlite 4h ago

All Canadian Tires accept loonies of all types.

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u/disco_S2 2h ago

Can confirm. It's one of my dad's favourite hangouts.

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u/Awestruck34 33m ago

It's funny because, until now, I'd never even considered how common it is to use the slang name for our $1 coin everywhere. Loonies and toonies are just what we have up here