2016 To 2017 Toonie Detail Comparison Differences?

I just looked with my loupe at a 2016 toonie I had in my pocket.
It has all the hair detail of your 2017 and more.
The 2016 in your pic is either weakly struck or from a worn die.
Not a very professional comparison.

I believe your coin is real.
I see nothing to indicate it is counterfeit.
You do yourself and your coin a disservice by posting unprofessional "professional" comparisons.
An opinion by CCCS is worthwhile.

I would even suggest that you save the 50 bucks or so for slabbing right now, if the RCM produces any polar bear desgn toonie in 17 , you have a 2.00 coin, if they don't you probably have a neat trial piece. CCCS probably if not counterfeit will just slab 2017 toonie au 50 or so and the date but the most important fact is what design the RCM has in production for 2017, hope you have a rare trial piece.

Koolkat, if this were my MD find and I lived anywhere near Winnipeg, I'd do some investigating into how this 2017 might have came to be, just to satisfy my own curiosity. Maybe take a Winnipeg mint tour, find a name of someone who's in the know and then ask some questions. Surely they're able to tell you for what purpose have 2017 polar bear toonies already been minted?

Because regardless of differences between the 2016 and 2017 toonie, a couple of thoughts:

What matters most is comparison to a 2017 Toonie and of course they haven't been released yet. It's highly unlikely that the Queen's hair would be touched up in 2017 considering the current effigy has been around ever since 2003.

You might want to find out if both versions - polar bear and 150th anniversary - are going to be released into general circulation in 2017? Or will any of the numerous collector sets that the mint cranks out (baby, Xmas, uncirculated, wedding, etc) contain steel plated 2017 polar bear toonies?



Without you having done any digging, whether you found anything special on the ground seems to be totally up in the air. (Forgive the pun!) Particularly if you're to sell it, do you recall the 2016 mismatched Uncirculated Sets? That a 2015 loonie was included in some sets was authenticated by RCM publicly acknowledging their mistake because some recipients brought it to the attention of the mint. Otherwise natural scepticism may have prevailed, belief that all the sets had been tampered with and resealed.

But something important to consider --- even if 2017 polar bear toonies are never issued, because the core of a toonie reportedly can be popped out, it wouldn't be entirely surprising if there's a proliferation of 2017 polar bear toonie "errors" next year which would diminish any interest in a legitimate one, especially one that's not in mint state. To create such an error, virtually anyone could take two toonies next year and combine a 2017 outer rim with a past year polar bear core.

for what purpose have 2017 polar bear toonies already been minted?
That is some of the best advice I have got yet, Thank you so much WildflowerAB. That is brilliant, I am going to take a tour, and ask some key questions to certain employees! and thanks Allen LOL Pretty sure I`ll get some answers. thank you

Like any manufacturing plant, you crank out trial pieces as in washers or what ever to set up machinery before full production, likely the RCM does the same, if you tour RCM Winnipeg, it's a rather large manufacturing plant, coins are dropped all over the floor one can assume this coin was dropped and a worker flipped it into a 2016 bulk bin or as I said something cool happened and your the lucky one

If the RCM mints like a baby raccoon core type coin with the same outer ring one can see maybe someone can fake this coin if it's unique. A few months down the road if the RCM doesn't produce a 2017 polar bear coin, then you send it to PCGS and chuck it on a major auction and let us go at it, unless you collect toonies. If you look up Mr. Glassford's site it will show the locking device for the two piece toonie, you see ever so often someone trying to sell a toonie with the core reversed, it can't happen due to the way the coin is struck, someone has popped the core and reset them.