inner core
92% Cu,
6% Al,
2% Ni
The Canadian 2 dollar coin, commonly called Toonie, was introduced on February 19, 1996 by Public Works minister Diane Marleau. The Toonie is a bi-metallic coin which bears an image of a polar bear, by Campbellford, Ontario artist Brent Townsend, on the reverse. The obverse, like all other current Canadian coins, has a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. It is the only coin in Canada to have the "ELIZABETH II / D.G. REGINA" in a different typeface; it is also the only coin to consistently bear its issue date on the obverse.
When the coin was introduced a number of nicknames were suggested. Some of the early ones included the bearie (analogous to the Loonie and its loon), the bearly, the deuce and the doubloonie (a play on "double Loonie" and the former Spanish doubloon coin). A joke refers to the coin as "The Queen with the Bear Behind", and thus the moonie[citation needed]. Another joke poked fun at the then-weak Canadian dollar to American dollar exchange rate by suggesting that the coin be called "the American silver dollar"[citation needed]. In Vancouver, people were referring to the coin as "the peso" because it looked like a 10 peso coin from Mexico, and 10 pesos was worth about $2 Canadian at the time. Finally, the coin has been referred to as the Bouchard[citation needed] (after Quebec separatist leader Lucien Bouchard), due to a few reports of the inside disc of the coin separating from the outside in early coins.
Another angle to the name pairs the word Toonie up with the Loonie to complete the reference to "loonie toonie" or the famous and popular Looney Tunes cartoons; an indirect jibe at Canadian politicians who introduced the coins replacing the paper currency equivalents.[citation needed]
The name Toonie became so widely accepted that in 2006 the Royal Canadian Mint secured the rights to it. A competition to name the bear resulted in the name "Churchill", a reference both to the common polar bear sightings in Churchill, Manitoba and Winston Churchill.[1]
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Last updated on Monday September 24, 2007 at 05:23:47 PDT (GMT -0700)
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