loonie

One dollar (Canada)

Value	1 CAD
Mass	7 g
Diameter	26.5 [1] mm
Thickness	1.75 mm
Edge	Eleven-sided, smooth
Composition	91.5% Ni, 8.5% bronze plating (88% Cu, 12% Sn)
Years of minting	1987–present
Catalog number	-
Obverse
Design	Elizabeth II, Queen 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, bronze-plated, one-dollar coin introduced in 1987. It bears images of a common loon, a well-known Canadian bird, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

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 by the courier service while in transit to the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg. In order to avoid possible counterfeiting, a different design was used.^[1]

The coin has become the symbol of its currency. Newspapers often discuss the rate at which the loonie is trading against the United States "greenback". The nickname loonie (huard in French) became so widely recognized that on March 15, 2006 the Royal Canadian Mint secured the rights to the name "Loonie".^[2]

The coin — an 11-sided polygon — is made of Aureate, a bronze-electroplated nickel combination. The total composition of the coin is 91.5% nickel and 8.5% bronze. The bronze is about 88% copper and 12% tin.

Public reaction

The coin was released on 30 June 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The $1 note remained in issue and in circulation along with the coin for the next two years, until the note was finally withdrawn on 30 June 1989.^[3] The coin has been met with a general public acceptance. The town of Echo Bay, Ontario, home of loonie designer Robert-Ralph Carmichael, has erected an enormous loonie in his honour along the highway — similar to Sudbury's 'Big Nickel'.

Commemorative editions

The design has been changed several times for commemorative editions:

Specimen set variant dollars

The big loonie in Echo Bay, ON

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, had buried a loonie under centre ice.^[13] 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 men's and women's hockey teams would win 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. ^[14]

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.

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.

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".

Team Russia has also made use of the lucky loonie - in the IIHF world championships in the year 2008 the coin was buried by Alexander Ovechkin at the centre of the ice and then dug out after Russia beat Canada 5 - 4 in overtime.

In the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers were said to have a lucky loonie buried at centre ice of the home arena of the opposing Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolina. However, during a practice before game 7 of the series, the Carolina players discovered and removed the loonie and the Oilers lost the championship in that final game.

References

External links

Multimedia

• CBC Archives News item talking about the introduction of the Loonie.
• The loonie's American trade secret revealed
• Loonie 20 years old

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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