Loonies

Loonies weren't going to be loonies?!

The loonie was introduced in 1987 but Canada has had $1 coins since 1935. They were usually minted in small numbers and were mostly collector's items, not in wide circulation.

The loonie was supposed to feature a Voyageur and indigenous person in a canoe as most $1 coins had since 1935, but the dies to manufacture the coins were lost on their way from Ottawa to the Royal Canadian Mint's manufacturing plant in Manitoba in 1986.

The Mint planned to save $43.50 by sending the dies through a local courier firm instead of a high-security armoured service like Brinks, the Mint's usual practice. However, after the courier firm picked them up, the dies were never seen again.

The two dies -- each about eight centimetres square by a few centimetres thick -- were to be packaged separately for shipping, a standard security practice to prevent counterfeiters from getting their hands on a complete set of dies. But they somehow ended up being packaged together in a box clearly marked as Mint property.

The loonie image was used to prevent anyone making counterfeit coins with the missing dies.

In hindsight, the folks at the Mint probably wish they had spent the extra $43.50 but if they had, we would not have this great story!

$1 coins were 80% silver in 1935 and were often called silver dollars. In 1987 the loonie was 91.5% nickel but today it's multi-ply brass plated steel.

All the gold from the modern Moose River gold mine was purchased by the Royal Canadian Mint. The Mint does not disclose how it uses metals from specific mines so we do not know which of its products contain Moose River gold.

The Moose River mine, which extracted from 2017-23, created over 300 direct jobs and over 900 spinoff jobs. The average salary at the mine was $84,000 per year. It generated $7.4 million in provincial tax revenue, $3.7 million in municipal tax revenue, and $100 million in economic spinoffs to local businesses. The company donated $1.6 million to community and non-profit organizations.

A 1935 silver dollar, what loonies were going to look like until the dies were lost.

Loonies as we know them.