Loony= 1 Dollar Coin Tuney= 2 Dollar Coin === A few decades ago, Canada stopped printing and circulating one- and two-dollar bills, and replaced them with coins. T
…he first to go was the dollar bill. It was replaced by an eleven-sided, gold-coloured coin, a little larger than a fifty-cent piece. The one-dollar coin bears a profile likeness of Her Majesty The Queen on one side, and that of a common loon on the other. The coin quickly became affectionally known as the loonie/loony/looney. (There is no 'official' spelling of it.) The pronunciation of it was originally intended as an 'editorial comment' about the decision by the government of the day to eliminate the dollar bill. The two-dollar bill was replaced a while later by a quite attractive two-dollar coin. It is slightly larger than the one-dollar coin, and actually consists of two separate pieces of metal. A gold coloured piece roughly the size of a dime is surrounded by a silver coloured ring. Again, Her Majesty's likeness appears on one side and that of a polar bear on the other. The two-dollar coin quickly became known as the twonie/tooney/tunie, etc. (Likewise, there is no 'official' spelling of it.) The loonie and the twonie are rhyming words. They are reminiscent of the Warner Bros. animated cartoon series, 'Looney Tunes.' The term 'Looney Tunes' came to be applied, inappropriately, to people experiencing some mental difficulties or limitations. The loonie and the twonie were frequently used together in that way, again in snide reference to the government. (MORE) 