Loonie

This article is about the coin. For the Canadian dollar as a currency, see Canadian dollar. For a mentally ill person, see lunatic.

Loonie

Canada
Value	1 CAD
Mass	6.27 (was 7.00 before 2012) g
Diameter	26.5 mm
Thickness	1.95 mm
Edge	Eleven-sided, smooth
Composition	1987–2011 91.5% Ni, 8.5% bronze plating (88% Cu, 12% Sn) 2007–2011 some coins used brass plating instead 2012– steel, brass plating
Years of minting	1987–present
Catalog number	-
Obverse
Design	Elizabeth II, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada
Designer	Susanna Blunt
Design date	2003
Reverse
Design	common loon in water
Designer	Robert-Ralph Carmichael
Design date	1987

The Canadian one dollar coin, commonly called the Loonie, is a gold-coloured one-dollar coin introduced in 1987. It bears images of a common loon, a bird which is common and well known in Canada, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

The coin's outline is an 11-sided curve of constant width. Its width of 26.5 mm and its 11-sidedness matched that of the already-circulating Susan B. Anthony dollar in the United States, and its thickness of 1.95 mm was a close match to the latter's 2.0 mm. Its gold colour differed from the silver-coloured Anthony dollar; however, the succeeding Sacagawea and Presidential dollars matched the loonie's overall hue. Other coins using a curve of constant width include the 7-sided British twenty pence and fifty pence coins (the latter of which has similar size and value to the loonie, but is silver in colour).

When introduced, loonie coins were made of Aureate, a bronze-electroplated nickel combination. Beginning in 2007, some loonie blanks also began to be produced with a cyanide-free brass plating process. In the spring of 2012, the composition switched to multi-ply brass-plated steel. As a result, the weight dropped from 7.00 to 6.27 grams. This has resulted in the 2012 loonie not being accepted in some vending machines. The Toronto Parking Authority estimates that at about $345 per machine, it will cost about $1 million to upgrade almost 3,000 machines to accept the new coins. The Mint states that multi-ply plated steel technology, already used in Canada's smaller coinage, produces an electromagnetic signature that is harder to counterfeit than that for regular alloy coins; also, using steel provides cost savings and avoids fluctuations in price or supply of nickel.

The coin has become the symbol of the Canadian dollar: media often discuss the rate at which the loonie is trading against other currencies. The nickname loonie (huard in French) became so widely recognized that in 2006 the Royal Canadian Mint secured the rights to it. When the Canadian two-dollar coin was introduced in 1996, it was in turn nicknamed the "toonie" (a portmanteau of "two" and "loonie").

On April 10, 2012, the Royal Canadian Mint announced design changes to the loonie and toonie, which include new security features.

Background

Canada first minted a silver dollar coin in 1935 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of George V's reign as king. The voyageur dollar, so named because it featured an Indian and a French voyageur paddling a canoe on the reverse, was minted in silver until 1967, after which it was composed primarily of nickel. The coins did not see wide circulation, mainly due to their size and weight; the nickel version weighed 15.6 grams (0.55 oz) and was 32.1 millimetres (1.26 in) in diameter, and was itself smaller than the silver version.

By 1982, the Royal Canadian Mint had begun work on a new composition for the dollar coin that it hoped would lead to increased circulation. At the same time, vending machine operators and transit systems were lobbying the Government of Canada to replace the dollar banknotes with wider circulating coins. A Commons committee recommended in 1985 that the dollar bill be eliminated despite a lack of evidence that Canadians would support the move. The government argued that it would save between $175 and $250 million over 20 years by switching from bills that had a lifespan of less than a year to coins that would last two decades.

Introduction

The government announced on March 25, 1986, that the new dollar coin would be launched the following year as a replacement for the dollar bill, which would be phased out. It was expected to cost $31.8 million to produce the first 300 million coins, but through seigniorage (the difference between the cost of production and the coin's value), expected to make up to $40 million a year on the coins. From the proceeds, a total of $60 million over five years was dedicated toward funding the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

The failure of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin in the United States had been considered and it was believed Americans refused to support the coin due to its similarity to their quarter coin and its lack of esthetic appeal. In announcing the new Canadian dollar coin, the government stated it would be the same overall size as the Susan B. Anthony coin – slightly larger than a quarter – to allow for compatibility with American manufactured vending machines, but would be eleven sided and gold coloured.

It was planned that the coin would continue using the voyageur theme of its predecessor, however the master dies that had been struck in Ottawa were lost in transit en route to the Mint's facility at Winnipeg. A Commons committee struck to investigate the loss discovered that the Mint had no documented procedures for transport of master dies and that it had shipped them via a local courier in a bid to save $43.50. It was also found to be the third time that the Mint had lost master dies within five years. An internal review by the Royal Canadian Mint argued that while a policy existed to ship the obverse and reverse dies separately, the new coins dies were packaged separately but were part of the same shipment. The Mint also disagreed with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's contention that the dies were simply lost in transit. It believed the dies were stolen. The dies were never recovered.

Fearing the possibility of counterfeiting, the government approved a new design for the reverse, replacing the voyageur with a Robert-Ralph Carmichael design of a common loon floating in water. The coin was immediately nicknamed the "loonie" across English Canada, and became known as a "huard", French for "loon", in Quebec. The loonie entered circulation on June 30, 1987, as 40 million coins were introduced into major cities across the country, though an error by the banks resulted in some Calgary residents receiving the coins one week earlier. Over 800 million loonies had been struck by the coin's 20th anniversary.

Two years after the loonie's introduction, the Bank of Canada ceased production of the dollar banknote as the final dollar bills were printed on June 30, 1989.

Composition

The weight of the coin was originally specified as 108 grains, equivalent to 6.998 grams.

In 1992 the town of Echo Bay, Ontario, home of loonie designer Robert-Ralph Carmichael, erected a large loonie monument in his honour along the highway—similar to Sudbury's 'Big Nickel'.

Commemorative editions

The design has been changed several times for commemorative editions:

The 2010 Olympic Lucky Loonie.

#	Year	Theme	Artist	Mintage	Special notes
1	1992	125th Anniversary of the Confederation	Rita Swanson	23,010,000	Showing children and the Parliament Building. The regular loon design was also minted that year bearing the double date "1867-1992".
2	1994	Remembrance Design	RCM Staff	15,000,000	Image of the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
3	1995	Peacekeeping Monument	J.K. Harman, R.G. Enriquez, C.H. Oberlander, Susan Taylor	41,813,100 (see note)	Included in 1995 Loon Mintage.
4	2004	Olympic Lucky Loonie	R.R. Carmichael	6,526,000	1st Lucky Loonie.
5	2005	Terry Fox	Stan Witten	12,909,000	Fox is the first Canadian citizen to be featured on a circulated Canadian coin. There are versions that exist without grass on the reverse of the coin.
6	2006	Olympic Lucky Loonie	Jean-Luc Grondin	2,145,000	2nd Lucky Loonie.
7	2008	Olympic Lucky Loonie	Jean-Luc Grondin	10,000,000	3rd Lucky Loonie. Part of the RBC Vancouver 2010 Coin Set.
8	2009	Montreal Canadiens Centennial Loonie	Susanna Blunt	10,000,000	To Commemorate the 100th anniversary celebration of the Montreal Canadiens professional hockey team. Circulated only in the province of Quebec at Metro(c) Grocery Stores.
9	2010	Olympic Lucky Loonie	RCM Staff	11,000,000	4th Lucky Loonie with the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympic symbol ilanaaq, an inukshuk. Part of the RBC Vancouver 2010 Coin Set.
10	2010	Navy Centennial	Bonnie Ross	7,000,000	To commemorate the Centennial of the Canadian Navy Features a Halifax-class Frigate below anchor, a 1910 naval serviceman and a modern-day female naval officer.
11	2010	Saskatchewan Roughriders Centennial	Suzanna Blunt	3,000,000	To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Features the Roughriders logo along with a stylized 100.
12	2011	Parks Canada Centennial	Nolin BBDO Montreal		To celebrate Parks Canada’s 100th anniversary. Features stylized land, air and aquatic fauna, varieties of flora, as well as a symbolic park building and the silhouette of a hiker framed by a snow-capped mountain range.
13	2012	Olympic Lucky Loonie	Emily Damstra	5,000,000	5th Lucky Loonie. Features a common loon with its wings spread, the Olympic rings and laser etched Maple Leaf.
14	2012	100th Grey Cup	RCM Staff	5,000,000	To celebrate the 100th Grey Cup. Features the Grey Cup with "100th Grey Cup" in English and French

Specimen set editions

The Big Loonie in Echo Bay, Ontario.

Year	Theme	Artist	Mintage	Issue price
2002	15th Anniversary Loonie	Dora de Pédery-Hunt	67,672	$39.95
2004	Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary	Susan Taylor	46,493	$39.95
2005	Tufted Puffin	N/A	39,818	$39.95
2006	Snowy Owl	Glen Loates	39,935	$44.95
2007	Trumpeter Swan	Kerri Burnett	40,000	$45.95
2008	Common Eider	Mark Hobson	40,000	$47.95
2009	Great Blue Heron	Chris Jordison	40,000	$47.95
2010	Northern Harrier	Arnold Nogy	35,000	$49.95
2011	Great Gray Owl	Arnold Nogy	35,000	$49.95
2012	25th Anniversary Loonie	Arnold Nogy	35,000	$49.95

First strikes

Year	Theme	Mintage	Issue Price
2005	Common Loon	1,944	$14.95
2005	Terry Fox	19,949	$14.95
2006	Lucky Loonie	20,010	$15.95
2006	With New Mint Mark	5,000	$29.95

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, buried a loonie under centre ice. 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 Canadian men's and women's hockey teams won 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.

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. Likewise, for the 2010 Winter Olympics, as part of the venue construction for the curling venue, three loonies were placed in the floor by the architect before the concrete was poured. Both the Canadian men's and women's ice hockey teams took home 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.

Team Russia has also made use of the lucky loonie — in the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Quebec City Alexander Ovechkin famously dug out the "lucky loonie" from centre ice after Russia beat Canada 5–4 in overtime and gave it to Russian teammate Ilya Nikulin, who cut it in two and made two necklaces out of the souvenir.

An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Blaze of Glory") also made mention of a lucky loonie – although the episode's air date (May 12, 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".

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Cross, W. K., ed. (2011), Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins; Volume One, Numismatic Issues 2012 (66th ed.), Toronto: The Charlton Press, ISBN 978-0-88968-347-1 

External links

• Loonie value - 1935 to today
• The chemistry of the loonie