loonie

Loonie

Canada
Value	1 CAD
Mass	6.27 (was 7.00 before 2012[1]) g
Diameter	26.5[2] mm
Thickness	1.95 mm
Edge	Eleven-sided, smooth
Composition	1987–2011 91.5% Ni, 8.5% bronze plating (88% Cu, 12% Sn) 2007–2011 some coins used brass plating instead 2012– steel, brass plating
Years of minting	1987–present
Catalog number	-
Obverse
Design	Elizabeth II, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada
Designer	Susanna Blunt
Design date	2003
Reverse
Design	common loon in water
Designer	Robert-Ralph Carmichael
Design date	1987

The Canadian 1 dollar coin (commonly called Loonie) is a gold-coloured one-dollar coin introduced in 1987. It bears images of a common loon, a bird which is common and well known in Canada, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

The coin's outline is an 11-sided curve of constant width. Its width of 26.5 mm and its 11-sidedness matched that of the already-circulating Susan B. Anthony dollar in the United States, and its thickness of 1.95 mm was a close match to the latter's 2.0 mm. Its gold colour differed from the silver-coloured Anthony dollar; however the successor Sacagawea dollar matched the loonie's overall hue. Other coins using a curve of constant width include the 7-sided British twenty pence and fifty pence coins.

When introduced, loonie coins were made of Aureate, a bronze-electroplated nickel combination. Beginning in 2007, some loonie blanks also began to be produced with a cyanide-free brass plating process. In the spring of 2012, the composition switched to multi-ply brass-plated steel. As a result, the weight dropped from 7.00 to 6.27 grams. This has resulted in the 2012 loonie not being accepted in existing vending machines.^[3] The Toronto Parking Authority estimates that at about $345 per machine, it will cost about $1 million to upgrade almost 3,000 machines to accept the new coins. The Mint states that multi-ply plated steel technology, already used in Canada's smaller coinage, produces an electromagnetic signature that is harder to counterfeit than that for regular alloy coins; also, using steel provides cost savings and avoids fluctuations in price or supply of nickel.^[1][4]

The coin has become the symbol of the Canadian dollar: media often discuss the rate at which the loonie is trading against other currencies. The nickname loonie (huard in French) became so widely recognized that in 2006 the Royal Canadian Mint secured the rights to it.^[5] When the Canadian two-dollar coin was introduced in 1996, it was in turn nicknamed the "toonie" (a portmanteau of "two" and "loonie").

On April 10, 2012, the Royal Canadian Mint announced design changes to the loonie and toonie, which include new security features.^[6]

Launch

The design for the coin was meant to be a voyageur theme, similar to the country's previous one dollar/silver dollar coin, but the master dies were lost or stolen while in transit to the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg. In order to avoid possible counterfeiting, a different design was used.^[7]

The weight of the coin was originally specified as 108 grains, equivalent to 6.998 grams.^[8]

The coin was released on June 30, 1987. The $1 note remained in issue and in circulation along with the coin for the next two years, until the note was finally withdrawn on June 30, 1989.^[9] In 1992 the town of Echo Bay, Ontario, home of loonie designer Robert-Ralph Carmichael, erected a large loonie monument in his honour along the highway—similar to Sudbury's 'Big Nickel'.^[10]

Commemorative editions

The design has been changed several times for commemorative editions:

The 2010 Olympic Lucky Loonie.

Specimen set editions

The Big Loonie in Echo Bay, Ontario.

First strikes

The lucky loonie

In recent years, the golden-coloured loonie became associated with Canada's winning hockey and curling teams and has been viewed as a good-luck charm in international competition. The legend began during the 2002 Winter Olympics, when a Canadian icemaker for the ice surfaces in the ice hockey tournament, Trent Evans, buried a loonie under centre ice.^[24] The original reason for placing the loonie was to assist in the puck-drop: the centre ice at Salt Lake was emblazoned with a large logo, and was missing the customary circle used by the referee and face-off players as a target for the puck — so he needed to add some kind of a dot as a puck target that would not stand out, and a loonie buried under the ice served well. Both the Canadian men's and women's hockey teams won gold in the tournament, the men's 50 years to the day after their last gold medal victory. Following the Games, Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky recovered the coin and gave it to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

A loonie was also used at the IIHF World Hockey Championships between Canada and Sweden on May 11, 2003. This lucky loonie is known affectionately as the Helsinki Loonie. It was hidden surreptitiously before the Gold-Medal hockey game and saw Team Canada to victory. After forward Anson Carter scored against Swedish goaltender Mikael Tellqvist in overtime to win the World Hockey Championship for Canada, Team Canada officials admitted they had placed a Loonie in the padding beneath the crossbar of the Swedish net.^[25]

The legend is also prevalent in curling, as the Kevin Martin rink at the 2002 Winter Olympics had won silver medals on a sheet with silver-coloured quarters underneath the surface. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Canadian icemakers in the curling tournament buried two loonies, one at each end of the sheet — coincidentally, Brad Gushue would win the gold medal there. In the same Olympics, the icemakers at the hockey tournament announced that they would not bury a loonie under the ice. The men's team finished out of the medals while the women's team won gold. Likewise, for the 2010 Winter Olympics, as part of the venue construction for the curling venue, three loonies were placed in the floor by the architect before the concrete was poured.^[26] Both the Canadian men's and women's ice hockey teams took home gold.

This legend is kept alive by the Royal Canadian Mint, which has since issued specially-designed "Lucky Loonies" for each year the summer and winter Olympics Games are held. Two new Olympic-themed loonies are due to be released in commemoration of the 2010 Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver-Whistler.

Team Russia has also made use of the lucky loonie — in the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Quebec City Alexander Ovechkin famously dug out the "lucky loonie" from centre ice after Russia beat Canada 5–4 in overtime and gave it to Russian teammate Ilya Nikulin, who cut it in two and made two necklaces out of the souvenir.

An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Blaze of Glory") also made mention of a lucky loonie – although the episode's air date (12 May 1997) predates the more-recent Olympic tradition, making it impossible for the scriptwriter to have intended a connection between the fictional coin and its real-world counterpart. The character, Michael Eddington, had a family heirloom in the form of a 22nd century Canadian one dollar coin that he called his "lucky loonie".

Saskatchewan Roughrider Loonie

The Saskatchewan Roughrider commemorative loonie.

On September 2, 2010 at Regina, Saskatchewan the Royal Canadian Mint launched a commemorative one-dollar circulation coin honouring the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders' 2010 centennial. The coin's reverse features the Roughrider logo and is dated 1910-2010. The circulating mintage was limited to 3,000,000 coins.^[17] However due a production oversight, the obverse of the Roughrider loonie does not bear the mandated Royal Canadian mint logo. On July 21, 2006, the Royal Canadian Mint announced its policy and unveiled its new privy mark to be displayed below the monarch's effigy on the obverse of all circulation and numismatic coinage beginning in 2006.^[27]

References

External links

Multimedia

• CBC Archives News item on the introduction of the Loonie.
• The loonie's American trade secret revealed

Web

• The chemistry of the loonie
• Snopes: A loon appears on Canada's one-dollar coin because the original dies, featuring a different design, were lost in transit.
• Loonie at centre ice

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