Loonie Toonie question - please help!

I didn't like them when they first came out (I'm usually not a big fan of "change" ... get it?)

... anyway ...

=> and I still prefer small-bills over large denomination coins (they fit better in your wallet)

=> however, the big currency coins are sure great for vending machines!

Good point Petersun - these were even hard to find at the banks I used to go to and try to get them to collect. In quite a few years of doing this, I only was ever able to get ONE roll. The tellers always had to go looking around to find some for me and most of the time had none. Sometimes I even got responses that they thought they had stopped making them (a few years before the Loonie's debut).



Yes, I figured this would be the response of younger Canadians b/c you grew up with the coin-only system. I appreciate your taking the time to comment though - thanks!

CC-Ottawa - thanks for the links - this is what I remembered and could not find much on it online.

Hey, Earle, wait until they come out with the $5.00 coin, then our pockets will be full.

If I may speak on the Australian experience where we, like Canada, replaced the $1 and $2 notes with $1 and $2 coins (in 1984 and 1988, respectively - a few years before the Canadians followed suit).

The replacement of the $1 note was almost universally welcomed as a good thing. People understood that continually printing $1 notes that only lasted a few years in circulation was a waste of government money. Everyone seemed to like the design, with the iconic Australian animal, the kangaroo. I can remember coming home from school on the day the coins were scheduled for release and dashing off to the bank to obtain one. I can also remember hoarding up $1 notes in the leadup to the change, most of which I still have (and which have not radically increased in value in the 28 years since). There were a few monarchists that warned of "republicanism by stealth", since the $1 note was the only banknote with the Queen's portrait on it, but they were mollified by the eventual replacement of the $5 design with one bearing the Queen's image.

The replacement of the $2 note a few years later was almost universally despised. People hated the new $2 coin - it was too small, too thick, too heavy, too ugly, too cheap-looking, too easily lost through holes in one's pockets, too offensive to aboriginies and too easily confused with the five cent piece. The coins were lampooned by the media and the victims of nasty letters to the editor for several weeks afterwards. I recall wondering what all the fuss was about; as I had done with the $1 notes, I had stockpiled a few $2 notes from circulation in the leadup to the change. I still have all of those too, and they have likewise not increased much above face value.

Here in Australia, as in Canada, we weren't given a choice. The government said, "We're replacing these banknotes with coins on such-and-such a date. You don't have to like them, but you will have to learn to use them". Curiously, whether people "liked" the new coins or not had little to do with people's eventual attitudes towards the changes. For both the much-loved dollar coin and the much-loathed $2 coin, within three months of the notes being replaced, the vast majority of people had basically forgotten that the notes had ever existed.

As I recall it was generally a pretty smooth transition.There was a lot of negative talk before hand but once they were out everyone seemed to accept them. The toonie seemed to be harder to adjust to, for one thing the centre of the coin would pop out this would regularly make the papers. Also, as Cannuk1 pointed out, getting a handful of change back from a .25 cent purchase gave the illusion of everything costing more, your bills defiantly disappeared faster.
Personally I like using them especially once I discovered that they are a great saving tool, throwing the change from your pocket into a jar at the end of the day can really add up. ( a baby food jar will hold about $110.00 worth of Toonies). I've been able to afford a few vacations this way.
But if they ever come out with a $5.00 coin then I feel they will have gone too far.

Lots of resistance to the Loonie when it came out butI would guess that today if they suggested going pack to the bill albeit plastic there would be similar discontention.
Side note I did read that they were suspending the Presidential dollars. You would think that enough casual collectors would keep that going.