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See also loony (nicknamed for loon), which is sometimes spelled 'loonie'.

Loonie is the name Canadians gave the gold-coloured, bronze-plated, one-dollar coin shortly after its introduction. It bears images of a common loon, a well-known Canadian bird, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

The design for the coin was meant to be a voyageur theme, similar to the country's previous one dollar/silver dollar coin, but the reverse dies were lost by Canada Post while in transit to the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg. In order to avoid possible counterfeiting, a different design was used [1]. The coin was released to the public on 30 June 1987, and circulation of the one-dollar banknote was intentionally reduced at the same time to forestall any reluctance by the public to accept the new coin. As a result, the introduction of the coin was successful in achieving public acceptance in a fairly smooth fashion.

The switch occurred when Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister; hence the coin was in its early years sometimes called Mulroney's Loonie or the Mul-loonie^{[citation needed]}, but use of these terms has largely subsided.

The coin has become the symbol of its currency. Newspapers will often discuss the rate at which the loonie is trading against the United States dollar. The nickname loonie (huard in French) initially a slang term for the Canadian dollar became so widely recognized that in 2006, the Royal Canadian Mint secured the rights to the name "Loonie".

The coin is made of Aureate, a bronze-electroplated nickel combination. The total composition of the coin is 91.5% nickel and 8.5% bronze. The bronze is about 88% copper and 12% tin.

Contents 1 Commemorative editions 2 First Strikes 3 The lucky loonie 4 Trivia 5 External links

The design has been changed several times for commemorative editions:

Year	Theme	Artist	Mintage	Special Notes
1992	125th Anniversary of the Confederation	Rita Swanson	23,010,000	showing children and the Parliament Building. The regular loon design was also minted that year bearing the double date "1867-1992".
1994	Remembrance Design	RCM Staff	15,000,000	image of National War Memorial in Ottawa
1995	Peacekeeping Monument	J.K. Harman, R.G. Enriquez, C.H. Oberlander, Susan Taylor	41,813,100 (see note)	Included in 1995 Loon Mintage
2004	Lucky Loonie	R.R. Carmichael	6,526,000	A Sterling Silver Edition was produced
2005	Terry Fox	Stan Witten	11,000,000	Fox is the first Canadian citizen to be featured on a Canadian coin. There are versions that exist without grass on the reverse of the coin.
2006	Lucky Loonie	Jean-Luc Grondin	N/A	This is the second Lucky Loonie.

Year	Theme	Mintage	Issue Price
2005	Common Loon	1,944	$14.95
2005	Terry Fox	19,949	$14.95
2006	Lucky Loonie	20,010	$15.95
2006	With New Mint Mark	5,000	$29.95

In recent years, the golden-colored loonie became associated with Canada's winning hockey and curling teams and has been viewed as a good-luck charm in international competition. The legend began during the 2002 Winter Olympics, when a Canadian icemaker for the ice surfaces in the ice hockey tournament, Trent Evans, had buried a loonie under centre ice. Both the men's and women's hockey teams would win gold in the tournament, the men's 50 years to the day after their last gold medal victory. Following the Games, Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky recovered the coin and gave it to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The legend is also prevalent in curling, as the Kevin Martin rink at the same Olympics had won silver medals on a sheet with silver-coloured quarters underneath the surface. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Canadian icemakers in the curling tournament buried two loonies, one at each end of the sheet — coincidentially, Brad Gushue would win the gold medal there. In the same Olympics, the icemakers at the hockey tournament announced that they would not bury a loonie under the ice — coincidentally the men's team finished out of the medals.

This legend is kept alive by the Royal Canadian Mint, which has since issued specially-designed "Lucky Loonies" for each year the summer and winter Olympics Games are held.

• When the new coin portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was first issued in 1990, a legend surfaced that the artist had simply added the image of the so-called "King's crown" to a portrait of the Queen, and that she was never meant to be seen wearing that headgear. This is patently false; she posed personally for the portrait wearing one of her usual crowns.
• An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Blaze of Glory") also made mention of a lucky loonie, although the episode's air date (12 May 1997) predates the more-recent Olympic tradition, making the two unrelated. The character, Michael Eddington, had a family heirloom in the form of a 22nd century Canadian one dollar coin that he called his "lucky loonie".
• The town of Echo Bay, Ontario, home of loonie designer Robert-Ralph Carmichael, has erected an enormous loonie in honour of Mr. Carmichael along the highway.
• The coin is actually a regular hendecagon (an 11-sided polygon).
• The coin is commonly used among drug dealers, as a way to verify the measurements on scales.^{[citation needed]}
• On the Canadian version of Deal or No Deal, the loonie has replaced the $1USD case ("Toonie" is also present as the next highest case).

• The chemistry of the loonie
• Snopes: A loon appears on Canada's one-dollar coin because the original dies, featuring a different design, were lost in transit.
• Loonie at centre ice

v • d • e Canadian banknotes and coins
Topics of Canadian numismatics	Royal Canadian Mint · Royal Canadian Mint numismatic coins · Royal Canadian Mint Olympic coins · Royal Canadian Mint RCMP coins · Gold Maple Leaf · Silver Maple Leaf
Canadian coinage	1¢ (penny) · 5¢ (nickel) · 10¢ (dime) · 25¢ (quarter) · 50¢ · $1 (loonie) · $2 (toonie)  · Canadian silver dollar
Canadian banknotes	$5 · $10 · $20 · $50 · $100 · Withdrawn banknotes
Historical currencies of Canada	New France livre · Canadian pound · Nova Scotian dollar · New Brunswick dollar · Early Canadian banking system
Newfoundland dollar	1¢ · 5¢ · 10¢ · 20¢ · 25¢ · 50¢ · Coins of the Newfoundland dollar
Other	Bank of Canada · Calgary dollar · Canadian Bank Note Company · Canadian dollar · Canadian Numismatic Association · Canadian Numismatic Association medals and awards · History of Canadian currency · List of foreign countries with coinage struck at the Royal Canadian Mint · Ottawa Mint sovereigns ·Toronto dollar · Voyageur dollar