Why was the loon chosen to be on Canada's 1 dollar coin?

Answer 1

The image on the back of the Canadian Dollar coin is that of a Canadian Loon, a waterbird native to Canada. Hence, the coins are often refered to as "Loonies."

As a point of interest, the Canadian Two Dollar coin is sometimes refered to as a "Toonie" (or, less commonly, "Two-nie") although it has no waterfowl imagery at all (Toonies have an image of a polar bear on the back).

Both the Loonie and the Toonie have a portrait of Queen Elizabeth the Second on the front.

It was also a little bit derogatory, because when first proposed many Canadians were a little resistant to the idea of a dollar coin and therefore considered it a little bit nuts or 'loonie'.

Answer 2

Canada has used $1 coins since the 1930s. However, they eliminated their $1 bill in 1989, shortly after introducing their new dollar coin. The reason Canada ceased printing $1 bills is because while a single bill is cheaper to make than a coin, coins last much much longer than paper currency. Basically, it saved money to stop printing small bills.

Answer 3

Because a Canadian 1 dollar coin is called a loonie.

Correction

The coin is called a "loonie" because it has a picture of a loon, not the other way around.

The "loonie" came about because of a burglary! When Canada decided to stop printing $1 bills and use a small coin instead, the design was supposed to be the same "Voyageur" design that had been used on the old large-size silver and nickel $1 coins. The voyageurs were French-Canadian trappers who opened up much of the wilderness for trade; the design showed a voyageur paddling his canoe across a lake.

The Royal Canadian Mint prepared dies for the Voyageur coins and shipped them to the main minting facility, but they were stolen somewhere along the way. The new coins had to be minted soon but the design had to be changed to prevent counterfeiting. Someone had the genius idea of using the same lake scene but replacing the canoe with a swimming loon, a common Canadian bird.

The drama of the theft and creation of the new design in such a short time turned out to be great publicity for the new coins. The majority of Canadians accepted them readily and the "loonie" is now as much a symbol of Canadian money as the greenback is for the US.

Answer 4

Actually, the loon design wasn't the original image chosen for the coin. When Canada eliminated its $1 bills in favour of a coin, the Royal Canadian Mint intended to use the famed "Voyageur"(*) image that had been used on silver dollars since the 1930s. But the master dies that were to be used for striking the new coins were somehow lost in transit, so to prevent criminals from getting their hands on them and making counterfeit coins the Mint created new image based on the Voyageur design. A similar forest scene was used but the Voyageurs' canoe was replaced with a swimming loon, Canada's national bird.

The lost dies and new design created a sensation in the news which added to the public's fascination with the new denomination. It was an almost instant success and is now a source of national pride. The loonie is as much identified with Canadian currency as the greenback is with American money (and is some circles is a source of smugness because the denomination was accepted right away while the similar American "golden dollar" has fallen victim to public inertia and bureaucratic bungling).

(*) Voyageurs ("voy - ah - zhurrs", French for "travellers") were fur traders whose travels helped open the Canadian wilderness in the 17th and 18the centuries.