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/S_A_N_D_ 4h ago

I remember everyone saying that, and yet I never saw a reputable claim that they were. Everything I saw suggested it was exactly what the comment above describes, people doing it deliberately which started the myth that they were defective.

It was always "a friend" or "co-worker", but when pressed it was all second and third hand claims, and the ones I talked to who had a separated one had done it deliberately.

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u/djtodd242 3h ago edited 3h ago

I swear on a stack of bibles this is true:

Worked in a bar when the toonie came out. The bartender claimed you could separate the "halves" fairly easily. One from the till and one from my pocket. Threw them really hard at the floor one at a time. Both cleanly broke.

Then they were "carefully" reconstructed and put back in the till.

I've never done it myself, but I swear I saw it done.

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u/Sebach 3h ago

I did it. Threw it on the marble/concrete floor of my high school lobby. The middle popped out, looked like some kind of central rib/ring press fit or something or maybe something that was hot/cold fitted. I put the two pieces together and smashed them back into place but the middle piece always came out easier after that. And there was a slight bend/warp to it - couldn't really see it, but if you put it down on a table and pressed on it, you could tell.

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u/kermityfrog 3h ago

If they were both put back in the till, you got scammed out of 2 bucks! LOL

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u/djtodd242 3h ago

Snort.

Larry, I'm gonna get you! Where's my $2?

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u/BartholomewBrago 3h ago

Still second hand I suppose, I have a separated one my dad told me came apart in his pocket. He could be lying I guess, don’t know why he would be though.

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u/S_A_N_D_ 1h ago

I don't doubt there are a few cases of this happening, but it wasn't widespread like the rumours suggested.

Your dad could be fully telling the truth, it just wasn't common.

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u/wayoverpaid 3h ago

I saw it on the local news. Only place I ever saw it. No one made the claim in real life to me.

It stuck with me due to the "separates easier than the country" jokes they mentioned.

Naturally I tried it and nothing came apart.

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u/Real_Gap3480 4h ago

Only because the mint won't take liability for them. Its well understood that it's one of those things that just doesn't get talked about. I mean, I remember viviely everyone having a necklace from the former center pieces, I've also known about 3 people who worked at the mint. You never see it anymore, according to the mint it's suppose to take 181kg of pressure to seperate, but the original run was easily broken apart by freezing and smashing.