# American Loonie! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 17, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527 "2013-12-17T04:20:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/21 "2013-12-17T19:13:46Z")
For the benefit of people unfamiliar with Canadian coins, the one dollar coin is called a “Loonie” because there’s a depiction of a loon on one side. There’s some kind of a bird on the other. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/22 "2013-12-17T19:19:25Z")
[I started a thread in 2010](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=555202) when a guy who owed me $50 paid his debt off in dollar coins. I was pissed, others disagreed… ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/23 "2013-12-17T19:25:10Z")
I like them for presenting as allowance. What’s more awesome than getting your allowance as a stack of gold coins? ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/24 "2013-12-17T19:27:49Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Well, I guess we’re going to have to just agree to fully agree on that. 🙂 It’s a deal. We’ll celebrate the next time you’re here by my buying you a soft drink of your choice from our newly-installed vending machines–that take coins or bills but insist on giving change in the least convenient manner possible. (I mean, really? Five dimes? Sheesh.) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/25 "2013-12-17T19:32:32Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > For the benefit of people unfamiliar with Canadian coins, the one dollar coin is called a “Loonie” because there’s a depiction of a loon on one side. Interesting story, but it should never have happened this way. The original one dollar coin was set to go to mint with a canoe scene on one side, Queen on the other, but the templates went missing while being shipped to the mint! So, they had to revert to the second choice: the loon. I wonder what we would have called our dollar had that not happened? (A lot of people at the time hated the dollar coin idea, and so loonie was a double entendre of sorts.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/26 "2013-12-17T19:40:46Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > I’m not going to get into yet another round of this, but the bottom line is this: Stop minting pennies (all amounts round down to the nearest nickel), switch all dollar bills to coins. No one will be carrying any more change than they already do, and there’s a significant savings on minting costs. People arguing against it anymore are just being obtuse. Proof that being promoted to Moderator doesn’t do anything to improve one’s silly opinions. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/27 "2013-12-17T19:41:15Z")
I am under the impression that, a few years ago, the mint threw in the towel and only mints enough of each remaining Presidential dollar for collectors. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/28 "2013-12-17T19:41:45Z")
Briefly, no one uses them here in the States but we [del]are[/del] [were until recently](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/12/14/143648506/white-house-kills-dollar-coin-program) required to [mint them then stick them in a warehouse](http://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nobody-wants). Gotta love that Congrefs of ours. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/29 "2013-12-17T20:26:34Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > And I have over 100 of them in a jar. I thought those were great coins. And this right here is the problem. People hoard them like they’re rare, rather than spending them. Even in the first year the Sackie was produced, there were enough coins in circulation that every man, woman, and child in the US could have at least four of the darn things. And yet people thought they were special and put them in their sock drawers, instead of using them like good little consumers. Breaks my heart. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/30 "2013-12-17T20:33:36Z")
So, really what would be the process for taking the paper bills out of circulation? And why the hell not just do it? It’s mind boggling. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/31 "2013-12-17T20:38:59Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > So, really what would be the process for taking the paper bills out of circulation? And why the hell not just do it? It’s mind boggling. \*A Government Accountability Office study out this spring says that switching to a dollar coin “would provide a net benefit to the government” of about $5.5 billion over 30 years. But it’s not because coins are cheaper. The report says the government would not recover the cost of switching from bills to coins over that period. Instead, the benefit to the government would come only from the profit it makes by manufacturing each coin for 30 cents and selling it to the public for a dollar. When this profit, known as seigniorage, is factored out, **switching to the dollar coin would actually cost taxpayers money over three decades** , according to a Federal Reserve analysis of the GAO’s figures. The cost works out to **$3.4 billion**. The Fed’s Louise Roseman wrote to the GAO that seigniorage should not be considered in an analysis of whether the switch would benefit the larger U.S. economy.\* There’s a good reason right there. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/32 "2013-12-17T21:21:38Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Instead, the benefit to the government would come only from the profit it makes by manufacturing each coin for 30 cents and selling it to the public for a dollar. > > When this profit, known as seigniorage, is factored out, This, by the way, was a classic technique that medieval monarchs used to generate funds in those days before general taxation when consequently royal governments were notoriously insolvent. Minting fresh coins ( and frequently adulterating them from the last iteration ) was a common recourse in times of expensive wars. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/33 "2013-12-17T21:23:04Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > And this right here is the problem. People hoard them like they’re rare, rather than spending them. Even in the first year the Sackie was produced, there were enough coins in circulation that every man, woman, and child in the US could have at least four of the darn things. And yet people thought they were special and put them in their sock drawers, instead of using them like good little consumers. Breaks my heart. If it makes you feel any better, once I filled the jar I decided I had enough of them to sell on ebay at some future point in my life, so now when I get them I just use them like any other currency. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/34 "2013-12-17T22:34:17Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > For the benefit of people unfamiliar with Canadian coins, the one dollar coin is called a “Loonie” because there’s a depiction of a loon on one side. > > [. . .] > > There’s some kind of a bird on the other. Ignorance fought! And all this time, I always thought the toonie had an image of a [toon](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Tinytoons.jpg) on it! ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/35 "2013-12-17T23:30:55Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Interesting story, but it should never have happened this way. The original one dollar coin was set to go to mint with a canoe scene on one side, Queen on the other, but the templates went missing while being shipped to the mint! So, they had to revert to the second choice: the loon. > > I wonder what we would have called our dollar had that not happened? (A lot of people at the time hated the dollar coin idea, and so loonie was a double entendre of sorts.) A canoonie, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/36 "2013-12-17T23:40:28Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > The first ‘golden dollars’ had a picture of Sacajawea on them. > > I called them ‘Sackies’. I found one of these in the dryer at the laundrymat on Sunday. I hadn’t seen one in a long time. ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/37 "2013-12-17T23:47:24Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > My cousin in Florida sent me an example of a US “golden dollar” coin, the equivalent of the Canadian one-dollar “loonie” coin. I received it today. > > I’d never seen one before. The US coin is quite good looking, in a chunky kind of way. Canadian one-dollar coins are pretty much the same thickness and diameter, but manage to look thinner. I have no explanation for this. The US coin bears the bearded face of James Garfield (“20th president 1881”). > > It fits right in to my change pouch, next to the loonie and toonie and subway token and smaller silver coins and no pennies… > > Are these coins being used at all now? I have the impression from the last few coin threads that they’ve just sort of gone off to the side, but those threads were a while ago. I get the presidential dollars and Sacajawea dollars (and the occasional Susan B. Anthony dollar) just about every time I use a five dollar bill at a vending machine at work, so they are being used where I am now. The other day, I noticed a two dollar bill in the cash register at my local grocer. I took two one-dollar bills out of my wallet and asked the cashier if I could have it. That is much more of a novelty these days than the gold dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/38 "2013-12-18T00:28:27Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Sacajawea : how do you pronounce that? I’ve been reading that name for years without hearing it pronounced. That’s really a misspelling. While Native Americans disagree on both the way whites spell and pronounce the name, it’s more correctly spelled “Sacagawea”, and pronounced Sah-cah’ gah-we-ah, with a hard ‘g’ and the accent on the second syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/39 "2013-12-18T01:27:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > That’s really a misspelling. While Native Americans disagree on both the way whites spell and pronounce the name, it’s more correctly spelled “Sacagawea”, and pronounced Sah-cah’ gah-we-ah, with a hard ‘g’ and the accent on the second syllable. Yes. That’s how it was spelled in the Powerpuff Girls book I used to read to my kids when they were small. I think I butchered it every time and possibly missed a syllable, or two. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/40 "2013-12-18T01:36:06Z")
Relevant Linky [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea#Name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea#Name) **Capt** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527.md?page=3)