Information About

Loonie





Coin Information

  Country Canada
  Denomination One dollar (''Loonie'')
  Value 100
  Unit CAD
  Mass 7
  Diameter 265
  Thickness 175
  Edge Eleven-sided , smooth
  Composition 915% Ni ,<br>85% Bronze plating<br>(88% Cu , 12% Sn )
  Years Of Minting 1987&ndashpresent
  Catalog Number -
  Obverse Loonie obverse viewpng
  Obverse Design Elizabeth II , Queen Of Canada
  Obverse Designer Susanna Blunt
  Obverse Design Date 2003
  Reverse Loonie reverse viewpng
  Reverse Design Common Loon in Water
  Reverse Designer Robert-Ralph Carmichael
  Reverse Design Date 1987


Loonie is the name Canadian s gave the gold-coloured, bronze-plated, one-dollar Coin shortly after its introduction. It bears images of a Common Loon , a well-known Canadian bird, on the Reverse , and of Queen Elizabeth II on the Obverse .

The design for the coin was meant to be a 1987 , and circulation of the One-dollar Banknote was intentionally reduced at the same time to forestall any reluctance by the public to accept the new coin. As a result, the introduction of the coin was successful in achieving public acceptance in a fairly smooth fashion.

The coin has become the symbol of its currency. Newspapers will often discuss the rate at which the ''loonie'' is trading against the United States Dollar . The nickname ''loonie'' (''huard'' in French), initially a slang term for the Canadian Dollar , became so widely recognized that in 2006 the Royal Canadian Mint secured the rights to the name "Loonie".

The loon portrait is slightly inaccurate. The loon's body is sitting too high on the water, much like a Mallard duck's body.

The coin is made of Aureate, a Bronze - Electroplated Nickel combination. The total composition of the coin is 91.5% nickel and 8.5% bronze. The bronze is about 88% Copper and 12% Tin .


COMMEMORATIVE EDITIONS

The design has been changed several times for commemorative editions:

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SPECIMEN SET VARIANT DOLLARS



FIRST STRIKES



THE LUCKY LOONIE

In recent years, the golden-coloured loonie became associated with Canada's winning and Women's hockey teams would win 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 helped 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. http://www.hhof.com/html/newsloon2.shtml

The legend is also prevalent in Curling , as the Kevin Martin rink at the same 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.

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 .


TRIVIA


  • When the new coin portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was first issued in 1990, a legend surfaced that the artist had simply added the image of the so-called "King's crown" to a portrait of the Queen, and that she was never meant to be seen wearing that headgear. This is patently false; she posed personally for the portrait wearing one of her usual crowns.

  • An episode of '''' (" Blaze Of Glory ") also made mention of a lucky loonie, although the episode's air date ( 12 May 1997) predates the more-recent Olympic tradition, making the two unrelated. 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".

  • The town of Echo Bay, Ontario , home of loonie designer Robert-Ralph Carmichael, has erected an enormous loonie in honour of Mr. Carmichael along the highway.

  • The coin is actually a regular Hendecagon (an 11-sided polygon).

  • On the Canadian Version of '' Deal Or No Deal '', the loonie has replaced the $1USD case ("Toonie" is also present as the next highest case).

  • Robin Williams referenced the Loonie during his 2002 Live On Broadway special, taking a jab at its peculiar name. He said, "Canadian money is also called "the Looney"; how can you take an economic crisis seriously?"



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