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 Replies: 17 / Views: 4,914 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
862 Posts |
In an effort to save taxpayers about $16 million annually, new versions of the loonie and toonie will be introduced this spring made from steel, replacing the more expensive nickel found in the current versions of the coins. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/hey-canada...0008462.htmlcurrent composition: toonie: outer ring 99% Ni, inner core 92% Cu, 6% Al, 2% Ni loonie: 91.5% Ni, 8.5% bronze plating (88% Cu, 12% Sn) |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1733 Posts |
There are some older threads discussing this. I feel it is a shame.
The current twonie is in my opinion the most well struck current circulation piece. All the plated coins look like the scrap they are made from.
Why is it a shame? The 16million they save will likely go to someones pension plan. There will be no reduction in the RC Mints budget nor a greater payment made to their shareholder, the Government of Canada. It will just get absorbed and lost in that mess they call an operations plan and we'll have to show for it are rusty coins.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
576 Posts |
It's a change they had promised for 2011. We'll see if they come through this year. It's been a long time since we experienced real money. I miss the 60's.
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Valued Member
Canada
178 Posts |
Why don't they just make coins out of plastic already? Seems like that's where we're headed!
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
862 Posts |
between steel and plastic, there is still aluminum
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1733 Posts |
Stop trying to cheer us up SilverBug.   |
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Valued Member
Canada
227 Posts |
I have seen any nickel 2012 toonie and loonie in market. Any one get 2012 toonie and loonie now?
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Valued Member
Canada
457 Posts |
More importantly has anyone seen the new test coins for sale any where. :-)
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
693 Posts |
I'm curious to see the plated-steel twoonie. I did a bit of digging last year & did not find any countries that have ever used plated-steel in manufacturing bi-metal coins. Getting the tolerances right for the ring must be difficult. I'm imagining that if the ring blank was left in the plating bath too long the core might not fit in when minted.
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Valued Member
Canada
304 Posts |
Alex Reeves did confirm the new coins are about to go into production and should be in circulation in "early spring" -- likely late March or April. The #1 question in my mind is will they start production with nickel and 1 week or 1 month later switch to steel, leaving us collectors to sort that out and scramble for examples of each? The only way to distinguish new from old will be with accurate scales since the old and new are all magnetic. Nickel quarters weighed 5.05g versus steel core 25¢ = 4.40g, a reduction of 13%. Nickel 50¢ vs steel 50¢ dropped 15% by weight. So we can extrapolate: 'old' loonies weigh 7.00g so the 'new' ones should be around 6.00g. Old toonies weigh 7.3g so 'new toonies' s/b around 6.3g...easy enough to spot!  |
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
992 Posts |
Quote:
I did a bit of digging last year & did not find any countries that have ever used plated-steel in manufacturing bi-metal coins. I think the Brazilian 1 Real coin (2002 and later) is just such a coin: http://www.bcb.gov.br/ingles/Mecir/.../mecomum.asp |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
It's gotta make you worry when a few cents worth of nickle in the intrinsic value of a $2 coin has to be downgraded to a junk steel coin.
I can remember when they took silver coins out of circulation to save a few quid.
No one benefited out of it and some smart arse got a great bonus/retirement package.
A government is not like a business , the more money it can get the more it will spend on inane agendas and all the "Shareholders" can do is vote every few years for another just as useless government.
A thousand years ago or more they made coins for commerce and today they are recognisable coins .
Imagine in another thousand years............... All they will find is rust and a trace of corrosion.
We already have a fiat dollar in the US now they want to have a fiat coinage in Canada.
By Crickey I hope this never happens I Aus
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
I wonder, though, if the toonie will still be bi-chromatic. If it's all the same alloy, then will they all be a drab steel color? I'll bet there will be many attempts to fake these if they skip that important step of the making the inner core and fitting it. That in itself represents an added measure of labor to the process and validates its value.
I've been seeing this coming and have a decent amount of loonies and toonies to search when this fiasco begins.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
What I don't get is that Canada is so rich in nickel. Why do we have to resort to anything else? Sudbury/Timmins isn't very far from Ottawa.
Saving money? This is a disaster, almost as bad as Afghanistan. (And our weapons are being "stolen", whatever. Reappropriated is more like it.)
Edited by Libertad
01/15/2012 12:20 pm
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Pillar of the Community
527 Posts |
While I am not Canadian but an American, I want to know why the Canadian government is smart enough to realize they need to use cheaper metals for coins, while the United States government is not smart enough to take this same course of action?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1733 Posts |
To answer the question Dan, it's more about how the two governments are structured. The founding fathers of the US basically set up a system designed on purpose to make it hard to enact changes, seriously. The default action is designed to be inaction (with good cause, I mean government screws things up so keep it small and make sure everyone is on the same page before laws are passsed etc...). Anyhow, in Canada, an elected party with a majority in Parliament ensures the PM is a de facto dictator for the run of his or her term. They dictate which bills are passed, what documents see the light of day and if a Crown Corporation like the RCM says "we can make cheap coins, can I haz rayz now" then the party in power can make it happen without so much as a grunt. Conversely, if the PM hated the steel coins, he could tell the Minister of Finance "this is suckage, I want aluminum coins so people in BC vote for me" then that is what would happen. In reality, they did a study, the study went to the Board of Directors of the RCM and was passed. The final decision maker is really the Minister who works for the Prime Minister, but he lets them go nuts as long as they keep the cash flowing back to the government, their only shareholder. Want to know what I'm really surprised about? That we don't have special edition bank notes, maybe a fuzzy bunny special edition in 100 dollar denominations so people squirrel them away forever. |
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Replies: 17 / Views: 4,914 |
Posted 01/13/2012 2:28 pm
