So I go to the corner store this afternoon before my late night shift, to by something to drink. All I have is a twenty, so I hand it over for my drink and an inordinate amount of change. Those of you who live in Canada know how our government loves change, and keeps coming up with more forms of it.
Anyways, here’s the point: Every coin I got had a different, weird picture on it. What happened to the old standard images? I haven’t seen a cariboo on a quarter in ages. They all have new engravings of ‘unity’, ‘excellence’, etc, or the months of the year.
Loonies now have pictures of the Peace Tower and other stuff on them. Even twoonies and dimes have gotten in on the act, with the Nunavut and Year of the Volunteers designs.
The Canadian mint can’t possibly have that much money lying around to waste on making new plates all the time, so what is this all about? Did they lose the old cariboo and are just to embarassed to tell anyone?
I am appealing to my fellow Canadian dopers to make some sense of this.
I’m not Canadian, but is it the two dollar coin that is silver with a gold center? When they first came out, I remember hearing that some of the first coins minted had defective centers that would fall out of the coin. Do you know how much those are worth today?
I have no idea if I’m misguided as usual or not, but I don’t have time to look stuff up this morning.
My understanding is that popping the center out of toonie was briefly a fad. You would think “half a two dollar coin - must be worth a dollar”, but you’d be wrong.
The fad passed quickly.
Anyway, I’m just sitting back waiting for the $5, $10 and $20 coins to make an appearance.
I heard years ago that we were supposed to have $5.[sup]oo[/sup] coins for 2001. As it is, I found that the excessive weight of our inflated coinage was seriously shortening the lifespan of my wallets-- So now I just have a billfold, and keep the change in my pocket, backpack. fanny-pack (sorry Brits, that’s what they’re called,) or whatever. I predict that when the $5.[sup]oo[/sup] coins show up, Canadian men will start carrying purses. Not handbags, but little leather purses. 15[sup]th[/sup] century style. And after that, it’s only a matter of time before the Squeegee-punks morph into “Cutpurses.”
Cariboo? [sub]Are you from BC? We spell it Caribou.[/sub] Isn’t it supposed to be an elk?
I like our money. It’s pretty, and it confuses our American visitors. I plan to spend the entire weekend teaching my American visitor bad things about Canadian money.
I’m with Ginger - I like our money too. And I live in a border town, so I get to have lots of fun with it. The varying pictures just makes it that much more confusing and interesting for my American friends - and the new ten dollar bill adds to that too
Here are just a few of thoughts on replacing bills with coins:
stimulates the economy - by weighing down our pockets, we are more eager to make impulse purchases just to get rid of the damn things. Ever hear of money “burning” a hole in your pocket? Well, the new and improved cliche is “wearing” a hole in your pocket
raises the value of mining stocks - in order to falsely prop up mining companies such as INCO, the Canadian government has introduced the loonie, toonie, and (coming soon) the quint-oonie. This increases the demand for nickel and raises profits. You think the Americans are pissed over the alleged subsidies on softwood lumber? Just wait till they figure this scam out
I hear Tim Hortons is in on it too. With the increasing price of a coffee and donut, they want to create the impression of value by still having it cost only one coin (now the Toonie). Rumours have it that once the quintoonie is intoduced, the cost of a medium coffee and donut will sky-rocket to $4.85 (that’s 75 cents US) (ADMISSION - Yes, I ripped this off from the Saturday Post.)
The introduction of the quintoonie is part of the negotiated settlement with the Dionne Quintuplets. Their profiles will be on the coin. Rumour has it the Quinlan Quints are conspiring to get their mugs on it instead
I’m pretty sure it’s a Caribou - remeber that song from Canadian Seseme Street “A Quarter Has a Caribou On It”? I think you’re right about the spelling though - I am in BC and people here can’t spell.
Anyways, I too like our money, but I just wonder why they feel the need to change it. I kind of miss the old Caribou. The new $10 is crazy. I’m getting used to it, but at first thought it was very ugly.
As an American who is ashamed of the uniformity and stultifying regularity of my nation’s currency, I say you should count your blessings. Just be glad you haven’t had the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagewea dollars foisted on you. It always irks me during Vancouver trips that so many places will accept American dollars, because spending Canadian money is rather refreshing after all the green-tinted dead white boys. I like the abundance of coins, too, which actually make small purchases rather easier.
It’s an Elk dammit… look at the wattles on the neck. Caribou is something you drink in Quebec City during Winter Carnival… you people DO NOT win the Canadian trivia contest.
It is definately a caribou - look at it’s antlers. Elk antlers are larger and more rounded on the end, also they don’t have the squared off bit directly over the animals head (sorry, I don’t know what it’s called).
Check out this picture of an elk (not Anne Expert, an elk - bonus points for identifying the quote!):
I love Canadian currency. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters are the same as American currency, yes, but beyond those is where the differences begin. American halves are huge coins that have a nice heft to them, while the Canadian halves I have are smaller coins. I get the impression that Canadians don’t use halves much, either. American halves seem only to circulate in casinos; it’s rare to get one in change.
The loonie was a brilliant stroke. I have to hand it to Canada for having the cojones to discontinue its one dollar bill in favor of the new coin. That policy would have helped acceptance of the American dollar coin back in 1979, and it would help with the acceptance of our current dollar coin, which really has no reason to fail. We started minting our Sacajawea dollar in 2000, and it hasn’t gained much acceptance yet. Cities’ mass transit systems rely on the coins, and here in the New York area we frequently do wind up with a few in our pockets because of that. I spend them when I can, to encourage circulation. A dollar coin is better for all concerned, since it saves taxpayers money and helps the economy.
The general help they give to the economy is hard to nail down, but here’s what I mean. In 1990, Great Britain started minting one pound coins, discontinuing the one pound note. This caused a revival of street musicians in London and other cities, since people are more inclined to give change than paper, and the one pound donations made it much more worthwhile for street performers to spend their time doing what they do. I don’t know if anything similar has happened in Canada, but it could help.
The one dollar coin is a great idea, and I’m happy that Canada has embraced it. The only real problem that could come from it is that strippers will wind up dancing funny.
As to the incessant switching of designs: I’m all for that, too. France, Spain and Germany do it, and here in the States we’ve been doing it with our quarters since 1999, with fifty planned commemorative designs to continue at five per year until 2008. A slightly different picture isn’t confusing or anything; I’m all for it. I wasn’t aware of any Canadian commemoratives since 1973, but I’m glad to hear you’re doing it. I love variety in my change.
Well, the Canadian Mint is a crown corporation; while it is owned by the government, it technically isn’t part of it. How it turns a profit (and how new designs tranlate into more profits) is a mystery to me. At least the new designs keep things interesteing there, right? Right? Oh, never mind.
Just try not to think to much about the new Harry Potter-themed coins being released soon…
Coins last 40 years…bills last 14 months. Coins may cost 5 times more to make for their value, but they last much longer. So even if the profit is not tidy, it’s better than bills. I wish America did that.
Ok, I lied, America IS doing that. By 2010, the U.S. mint hopes to replace the $1 with the [sub]gay[/sub] Sacagawea coin.
Just be thankful that by 2008 you won’t have 51 different styles of quarters like America will. We’ll have the old design with Washington, then one for each state. What a mockery.
Monty Python. And any country that puts beavers on its currency is clearly a rogue nation and needs to be subjected to UN sanctions, 24 hour bombing, and a diplomatic mission headed by Jesse Jackson.
