From suspicion to pride: Canada's beloved loonie turns 30
How the bird that was not supposed to be on the $1 coin captured our pockets and hearts

cbc.ca
By Renee Filippone
June 30, 2017

Thirty years ago today the loonie made its first clanking appearance in cash registers, pockets and purses across Canada.

In 1987, many people were concerned about the size and weight of the new gold-coloured $1 coin, others unhappy about giving up the comfort of their familiar dollar bills.

But three decades later sentiment about the quintessential Canadian coin has shifted. The loonie is now synonymous with the Canadian dollar, perhaps even with the country.

The paper bill surrendered to the coin "mostly for cost-savings purposes," says Royal Canadian Mint public affairs director Christine Aquino. "The government predicted they would save about $175 million over a span of 25 years because coins last a lot longer than banknotes."

In a way, it was all a mistake. The common loon was never intended to be on the coin. The design was supposed to be two men in a canoe, the voyageur design from the previous silver dollar coin.

But the dies for the coin disappeared en route from the Ottawa mint to the Winnipeg facility where it was to go into mass production. An effort to save money on shipping has been blamed.

The mint had only one year to get the new coin into circulation. Aquino says it had no choice but to find a new design, "to prevent counterfeiting from happening the mint went back into its art bank and found a designable loon that was actually submitted in 1978 by Robert-Ralph Carmichael."

Carmichael, who died last year, said, "Everyone will be familiar with this image and everyone will be able to possess a copy of it, whether they want to or not, really."

Lore of the loonie

"The loonie has sort of taken on a life of its own somewhere along the line," says Hamilton coin collector Stephen Adams. "Someone put one in the ice and it became the lucky loonie and really from there I think it got into the popular culture."

Adams is referring to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, where a loonie was hidden at centre ice. Canada's men's and women's hockey teams took home gold at those games, and the lucky loonie got its own commemorative coin.

Collecting a classic Canadian

Adams says, "Along with collecting any of the 18 commemorative versions, classic loonies are a great coin for beginner collectors - it's just very easy."

He says you may often come across an original 1987 loonie because so many were made and they have held up. But there are holes in the collections. Between 1997 and 2001, the mint did not manufacture any new loonies because enough were already in circulation. "Mostly it was a cost-saving measure."

To mark the anniversary the mint has made a commemorative silver loonie with the original design. The voyageur coin shows two men in a canoe with paddles in hand.

"The voyageur and also the canoe is such a Canadian scene and you have the Indigenous people with the French people," says the mint's senior engraver, Jose Osio. "It tells a story of Canada and how it started. It's pretty nice."

Some Canadian tourists at the Ottawa mint are happy with the avian ending.

"I love the loonie," says Christine Twardzik from Edmonton, "because when you are talking about money you don't think about it as a $1 piece, you think of it as the loonie."

But Alberta's Marcel Barry says he is getting used to the coin.

"Oh, I didn't like it, 'cause we go down to the States in the wintertime and we are used to the dollar bills. Boy, all of a sudden you got a pocket full of change. To me I would just as soon they have kept the dollar bill."

He has a warning for the government: "Don't put the $5 coin out, though - oh gee, that would be a killer."