Parks Loonie

On the day Canada announces that its $100 bill will be made of plastic in future, I received this shiny loonie in my change, celebrating the centenary of Canada's National Parks. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of wild parks all over Canada.

The dollar coin is called a loonie because it normally features a loon duck on the obverse of the Queen's head. A two dollar coin is called a "toonie".

It's a major difference from the US. Other coins are the same shape, width and weight and used interchangeably (at or near parity anyway) with US coinage. But although the Treasury tried to introduce a dollar coin, those Yanks won't give up the greenback!