Counterfeit Toonies Are Going To Be A Significant Problem

Personally I'm not sure what makes the most sense. If I take them back to my local bank where I received the rolls, I'm not sure what their response will be.

The pre-security toonies represent around 70% of circulating toonies (the 1996 mintage alone is half that, at around 35%). It would take a long time to replace all those with the newer security toonies.

Furthermore I don't think it would make much of a difference, as the security features probably aren't that big a deterrent to counterfitters, They don't seem to mind putting out lower quality fakes, so I'm sure they could produce a counterfeit security toonie that doesn't replicate the security features very well, but that's close enough.

1. If collectors come across them I would think it would be their duty to report it. Banks could sort out the pre-security marked toonies.

2. I'm guessing you could report counterfeits to CSIS or even the RCMP.

3. If circulating counterfeit coins are becoming a thing, maybe it's time for action.

I took the counterfeit to my bank. For those who have seen the loonie countefeit thread, I had found a loonie as well.

I showed these to the tellers and even the branch manager and they humoured me. They wondered why anyone would even bother to counterfeit the toonies and the loonies. They told me that if they found it in a roll they would not even think of it being counterfeit.

Coins are not like banknotes. They generally come in rolls and tellers run into all kinds of problems with them (sometime there are foreign coins of much lower values). The branch staff generally do not bother with these things.

If they find a systemic issue then they will temporarily put some measure in place. I had one branch that put down my account number on the roll.

I would hope that Royal Canadian Mint is monitoring these types of forums and picking up on these things.

I applaud all the greatness in going to police and such. However if the the banks are not interested in it then how could you expect others to be interested in taking this up.

Of course banknotes are different than coins. The banks have technology at their disposal to verify them at the branch level.

Silver bullion is also different. I have been told that more and more now many dealers carry the techology to verify the authenticity.

Wow - sad. But I am not surprised after all these years of the coins being used to the exclusion of bills that this is happening. Its a perfect setup for counterfeiters:


1. No one, evidently from the above posts, including the banks want to look for them or report them.


2. Anyone reporting them (according to Canadian law, has to forfeit the value of the coins. I understand the RCMP should not be expected to somehow come up with the money to replace a counterfeit.




3. Its simple to counterfeit coins since most people out there don;t even pay much attention to the coins they spend.


4. Counterfeiting, on a large scale, something seemingly not worth counterfeiting, is profitable.

I own a retail establishment, and I've reported counterfeit banknotes to the RCMP before, but not anymore. They really don't care, unless it can be proven that they were intentionally distributed. Once, they just told me to bring it to the station and fill out a report. I actually talked to an officer once, and he told me its not worth their time to prosecute some one who passes a counterfiret note unless it can be absolutely proven that it was passed intentionally. So I just keep them now for "educational" purposes. I'm a collector, and I use them to educate my staff.
As far as counterfeit coins go, as long as they are generally accepted by the public and retail establishments, then they are good for commerce. It sucks for the government, yes. But think about it, when was the last time you received an american nickel or dime in your change? Did you you refuse to accept it? Or did you think, "ill just spend it at the next place"? Using an american coin or a counterfeit canadian coin really is the same thing. Neither one are legal for conducting canadian commerce.
Anyways, just some random ramblings.

I hope the above 2 threads are about circulating and NOT numismatic coins......