Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Jangle in the pocket...

Change – noun - coins as opposed to paper currency: a handful of loose change.

In case you’ve never visited my home and native land, or have not been exposed to our currency, here is a brief overview of the money in my coin purse, i.e. the loose change.

The coin with the smallest monetary value is the five-cent piece, also called a nickel. (We stopped using the one cent piece, the penny, in 2013.)



The “tails” side of the coin features the mighty beaver, source of wealth for fur traders and their bosses in the UK. Beaver skins were widely used in the hat and coat trade, and a secretion produced by the buck-tooth critters, castoreum, was and is used in medicine and perfume. 

On all our coins, the “heads” side displays a profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. 


Next in value is the ten-cent piece, the dime, with a depiction of the fabled Bluenose schooner. 


Launched in 1921 from a shipyard in my little town of Lunenburg, the vessel was used for fishing as well as racing for the coveted Fisherman’s Trophy, which it held for 17 years. The original Bluenose sank in 1946 and a replica, the Bluenose II, was launched from the same shipyard in 1963 as a culture and tourism ambassador.

For the longest time, the largest coin in size and value widely circulated (there is a 50-cent coin but it's rarely seen in use), was the 25-cent piece, the quarter. 


The “tails” side of this coin typically depicts the profile of the mighty moose, the largest species in the deer family, and the symbol that represents Canada’s native wildlife. Moose can be found in every region of the country, except for the Arctic. 

Occasionally, commemorative quarters are issued with different “tails” sides.

In 1987, the dollar coin, or loonie, was entered into circulation as a cost saving measure, and the paper dollar bill was taken out of circulation in 1989.


The loonie is slightly larger than the quarter. The “tails” of the eleven-sided loonie depicts a loon on a lake with an evergreen forest in the background, a scene I enjoy every summer on our camping trips to Kejimkujik National Park.

Following on the success of the loonie, the Canadian government got rid of the two-dollar bill and replaced it with the two-dollar coin called the toonie in 1996.


Slightly larger than the loonie, the two-tone coin features a polar bear designed by the artist Brent Townsend.

Here are the old paper one-dollar and two-dollar bills we had framed, just for fun.


I hope we hang on to the rest of our paper money because all those coins are heavy!

5 comments:

Judith Ashley said...

Thanks for the history lesson! Very interesting...so can I use one and two dollar paper bills? I've saved money from every country I've visited. Not sure I have them but I sure could.

Deb N said...

Love this, Lu - nice to know the history. Having spent my childhood summers at our camp in the Adirondacks and 10 miles from the Canadian border, when I turned in my bottles and cans at the tiny mom & pop store (an exciting venture, as we rarely got to drink soda, so summers with soda and returned bottle pocket-money was a highlight as a young kid,) I often got Canadian coins.

Sarah Raplee said...

Fun post, Luanna. I love Canada and all things Canadian! In fact, it's the only country to which I've seriously considered relocating. Not only is Canada famously beautiful, full of the wildlife portrayed on the coins, but it's people and culture are equally lovely. Oh Canada!

Dari LaRoche said...

Luanna, Love this post. I have collected money from all of my travels, like many other people, and have no idea what it is currently worth. Some, like the old Greek drachmas, are not worth much if anything now. But it is always fascinating to compare the different monies, both paper and coin.

Maggie Lynch said...

Luanda, I must admit the Loonie and the Toonie are new to me. The last time I visited Canada for any length of time was in the early 1980s. I've visited a couple times in BC for a night or two but used a credit card and didn't exchange and coins or dollars.

I've often wondered when countries will give up paper money and coins all together. It us rare I ever carry more than $20 in cash and that often remains in my wallet for months anymore.

What a lovely and different post on Change.