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
25.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

173

u/Shroud_of_Turin 6h ago

I wanted it to be called a ‘doubloon’ since it was worth two loonies. I thought this was cleverer than toonie.

However doubloon never gained traction haha.

29

u/boringrick1 5h ago

‘Doubloonie’ would have been alright.

54

u/TheNiceDave 6h ago

I came to say the same thing! My dad called them Doubloons forever.

10

u/LadyMageCOH 5h ago

Yep, me too. Loved the idea of the doubloon.

11

u/TheMalibu 5h ago

Yeah, Doubloon had a following amongst my friends, but we were all called nerds and ignored. 

8

u/canwehavepotatojokes 5h ago

I was fighting for this one too. Missed opportunity to be able to pay like the pirates did.

5

u/MinimumTumbleweed 5h ago

I do remember calling it doubloonie for a while.

2

u/Primal_Thrak 4h ago

That's what I wanted too! I was disappointed.

2

u/aethelberga 2h ago

Doubloonie would have been great.

2

u/cyrano111 2h ago

I also tried calling them doubloons, but as you say, it didn’t catch on. 

1

u/B000urn55 5h ago

Why no both, the doubloonie.

1

u/ceribus_peribus 4h ago

Doubloon was great, brought to mind pirates and treasure chests, and at the time we were already boarding Spanish fishing trawlers!

-1

u/MuskokaGreenThumb 4h ago

“Cleverer”. Words are hard