Canada 1-DOLLAR (KM157)¶
-
Reverse COMMON LOON
-
Obverse Queen Elizabeth II
- Composition
- Bronze-clad Nickel
- Country
- Canada
- Approx. Size
- 27mm
- Area
- North America
- Animal Class
- Birds
- Species
- Common Loon
- KM#
- 157
The Common Loon is a symbol of the Canadian wilderness and Ontario's provincial bird. The hauntingly beautiful sound of loons calling between lakes is like magic for wilderness campers. Loons are quite large -- up to 88cm long and 6kg in weight. They can dive up to 60m to catch fish.
The 1-dollar coin was introduced in 1987, to almost unanimous complaining. Seems Canadians didn't want change. The coin's nickname "loonie" started out as a term of derision. Luckily the government of the day had the political will to make the uneconomial-to-produce dollar bill disappear and now "loonies" are as Canadian as...
Canada¶
- Area
- North America
Canada is almost ten million square kilometers of rocks, trees, and water whose borders stretch to three oceans. France arrived in 1534, established the first permanent colony in Nova Scotia in 1604, and pursued their master plan for more than a century before conflict with the British started. Britain won a decisive battle in Quebec in 1759 that unfortunately some Canadians still think is being fought to this day. Canada started to thrive in the early ninteenth century, and successfully repelled a hostile take-over bid by the United States in the war of 1812. In 1837 armed rebellions in both Upper and Lower Canada erupted. This resulted in the union of the two colonies as the Province of Canada in 1840. In 1867 Canada achieved dominion in a unique way: no fighting (except verbal fighting, of course). Today, most Canadians are very concerned with getting along and helping the rest of the world, but often have trouble getting along with themselves.
A Canadian magazine once held a contest to find the Canadian version of the simile "as American as apple pie." The winning entry was "as Canadian as possible, under the circumstances."
