Composition : 99.99% silver
Mintage : 10,000

Celebrating 25 Years of Canada's Iconic Loonie

In 2012, the Royal Canadian Mint celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Loonie - the iconic Canadian one-dollar coin bearing the image of the Common Loon. Like its namesake, the Loonie has proven resilient and emblematic.

In 1987, there was no online banking, no in-store debit - even bank machines were a new idea. Canada's one-dollar currency was a paper banknote and the idea of replacing lightweight paper money with coinage camewith some debate. But replacing the green, black, and white one-dollar bills, which had a lifespan of only nine to twelve months compared to a coin's twenty-year lifetime, would save Canadians millions of dollars.

The new one-dollar circulation coin was one of the biggestchanges to Canadian coinage in fifty years, but the idea of a one-dollar coin in Canada wasn't completely new. The Voyageur dollar, whose reverse image was designed by Toronto sculptor Emanuel Hahn, circulatedin silver from 1935 to 1967 and in nickel from 1968 to 1987. This image of a fur trader and a native Canadian paddling a canoe was originally chosen for the new one-dollar coin in the mid-1980s. But in November of 1986, the master dies (molds) for the new one-dollar Voyageur coin inexplicably disappeared somewhere between the Mint's Ottawa and Winnipeg facilities.

To protect against possible forgeries using the missing dies, the federal government chose Ontario artist Robert Carmichael's Common Loon design as the replacement. When the new coin came into circulation in June 1987, Canadians had already dubbed it the "Loonie" - referring to its reverse image of a Common Loon.

Some groups had extra reason to celebrate the Loonie, though. The visually impaired would find it much easier to distinguish the unique eleven-sided coin, something that was impossible with the old one-dollar banknotes. And as one-dollar notes were phased out, buses, subways, and streetcars had fewer problems with paper-jammed fare boxes.
 

TWO LOONS - 2012 CANADIAN COINS is categorised COINS AND PAPER MONEY / 08- ROYAL CANADIAN MINT / 13- CANADIAN HISTORY and sold by l'Imaginaire, a store and specialised website.