Loonie

Loonie is the unofficial but commonly-used name for Canada's gold-coloured one-dollar coin. It bears an image of a common loon, Canada's national bird, on the reverse. This image replaced the planned image of a voyageur which was lost in transit to the Royal Canadian Mint at Winnipeg.

The coin was introduced during the 1980s, but was unpopular until the government withdrew the one-dollar bill from circulation. Both occurred when Brian Mulroney (which rhymes with "loonie") was Prime Minister; hence the coin was in its early years sometimes called "Mulroney's loonie," but this term has largely died out.

By extension, the loonie (huard in French) is a slang term for the Canadian dollar.

On occasion the coin has shown other images, for instance the War Memorial to commemorate VE day, it is still however referred to as a loonie.

Canada also has a two-dollar coin, usually known as the toonie.

Refer to [1] to see how the Canadian dollar compares in value to other international currencies.

See also

• Canadian currency
• Canadian English

External Links

• Royal Canadian Mint

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Loonie (short for lunatic) is an inclusive term used by residents of the lunar colony in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein.