An Important Question For Our Canadian Members

If it is dark enough, and you are brave enough - Canadian Tire Money works just fine!!

The one and two dollar coins are great.

If I have a pocket full most stores will gladly exchange them for a $5, $10, $20 bill, as they use them for change

$2 coin makes my Tim Hortons run in the morning a breeze

I throw them into a bucket with all my other coins at the end of the day. Come winter there is usually $2000+ dollars. A winter vacation paid for. A lot harder to do with US coinage.

As for the gentlemen establishments. Without the beloved toonie we would never have created the wonderful "toonie slide" lol

For those that complain about them weighing down their pockets, I have to ask why you keep so many of them?

Lets say that I have a loonie and a toonie in my pocket and I go to pay cash for an item that costs $17.54. I would pay with a $20, a $1 and a $2 and geta $5.46 as change. This would remove the "heavy" coins from my pocket. I just don't get how anybody could be carrying around $10+ in loonies (lets face it, $10 in toonies doesn't weigh down your pocket, maybe $20 though).

I guess we travel in different circles. Go out to a bar or a club and you will either come home with a fist full of change, over-tip, or you stuck your buddies with the bill. Of course you could run a tab and really over pay by credit card. Savy servers avoid giving back $5s because it cuts into their tips.

As for giving change to get bills; my experience is that if you gave a cashier under the age of 35 (and some over), 23.00 on a 17.54 purchase, you'd get back a handful of change including the loonie and toonie you just gave them. Or you could spend 10 minutes explaining basic math.

Many places covet their fives and tens because they just don't get many from customers.

More than a few times, I've used a $20 bill for a sub $10 purchased and gotten back nothing but change. That is very annoying but it happens because most ATMs only give out $20 or higher and thus $5s and $10s are not nearly as widely circulated in our modern world.

I guess this is just demonstrates that there is no typically buyer. I would almost never pay with cash at a grocery or clothing store. I use my credit card whenever I can, even for small purchases - gotta get the points.

Which brings up another difference between Canada and the US - very different ways in which credit cards are administered. Admittedly, I'm not sure how that translates to cash spending south of our border or how it effects this discussion. I suspect that the frequency of CC and even debit card usage in Canada outpaces the US but I have no data to support that; just an observation.

I don't mind the 1$ or 2$ coins. I too empty my pocket every night into a jar. for my bar years, once I had enough 2$ coins to pay for the beer and tip, I just gave it back. never got home with more than 10$ in change.

I wasnt even born when the switch happened, but I would find it nice for a 1 or 2 dollar bill to be in Canadian circulation. Maybe a collectors item.

Has anyone ever tried to use a $1.00 or $2.00 Canadian note for your purchase, I have and its like your a criminal most younger people think they are counterfeit and want to call the RCMP and hold you there until they arrive. When they do arrive they get red faced and an education pretty funny