Sunday, November 8, 2009

SundayStills - currency


Yes, this is legal tender at any Canadian Tire store.
If you pay cash, you will get a 1% bonus of Canadian Tire money.
It has changed a fair bit over the years and some have become quite collectible.

But, seriously, here is my five cents worth for this challenge.

What have I learned?
That taking pictures of coins is not as easy as one might think.
I spent a considerable amount of time poring through my coin jar to find the right selection to display. I found several Olympic quarters and a few Millennium quarters. I found the coloured ones, for breast cancer awareness and the infamous poppy coin. And I put aside the shiniest of the loonies and toonies. But none of them came out clearly enough for my satisfaction.
So I decided to go with my original thought when I saw this week's challenge.
I was pulling out a handful of change from my pockets last Saturday, when I saw something different yet vaguely familiar.

A Centennial nickel!
I wondered where had this hare been all these years? And why did someone now decide to spend it and put it back into circulation?
The reverse side of all the commemorative coins were designed by Alex Colville. They depicted various wildlife: quarter (usually a caribou) had a bobcat or lynx, the dime (usually the Bluenose Schooner) had a mackerel, the nickel (usually a beaver) had a hare or rabbit, and the penny (usually two maple leaves) had a rock dove. The dollar coin (before the loonie came along in 1987) had a Canada Goose in flight.
Somewhere, I have a set of these....

Continuing with the nickel, or 5 cent piece, theme, here are two more examples:
on the right you can see the old style with the dodecagonal
[12-sided] shape - yes, I had to look up the correct word!
and on the left the current beaver, who really hasn't changed much over the years.
... and by special request for Ed

44 comments:

  1. Interesting! Those old nickels bring back many memories.
    I have some Canadian Tire from my last purchase. Can´t use it here.... :)

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  2. Oooh, I really like the rabbit coin. Wish we had more wildlife on ours.

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  3. I remember playing with CT money as a child. And I still get it today, albeit in electronic format with my credit card. It's much less fun that way.

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  4. I agree with Weaver, we need more animals on our coins, presidents are soooo boring.. Where is the Toonie with the queens bear behind? I love that coin..:-)))

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  5. Betty: it doesn't take much to excite me, and I was incredibly excited to see that rabbit!

    flowerweaver:I agree, your money is quite boring and so 'serious' looking. some of us still lament the loss of the kingfisher on the 5 dollar bill.

    Jazz: I know, sometimes, I will pay by cash just to get the physical money. my father used to save it up and if he was in a generous mood, I would get to take a handful and spend it. of course, back in the 60s there wasn't a whole lot to interest a young girl at Crappy Tire...

    Ed: I have fixed that for you. one bear on an ice floe

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  6. I very nearly did the Canadian Tire money too...since I was loonieless and twoonieless this morning. But a 10 in my wallet helped to spawn an idea...thank goodness. I love the centennial coins and I have a set that come to think of it must be at my parents house. Nicely photographed...coins are tough.
    Did you see the Prince and Duchess?

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  7. Meadowsweet: I even saved all the Millennial coins, until I decided I'd rather spend them...
    No, I didn't go. Though, apparently there was tea in the house afterwards you could have bought tickets for, so it might have been worth the trip.

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  8. Very nicely done! I admit I was not nearly as good with lighting as you were. Your Canadian coins are lovely, I didn't know y'all have wildlife on yours. Presidents do get a little boring, especially when the majority of the population doesn't even remember their own history well enough to know which president is which.

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  9. Char: thanks, it was difficult to get a good clear macro of a small grouping.

    Rebekah: yeah, we're all into nature up here! the obverse side of all our coins always have the Queen (therefore Ed's little joke about the Queen's bear behind!)

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  10. Really nice! I'm with Ed, bring on the animals, they are so sweet. :)

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  11. dibear: not sure about sweet... but our wildlife should be protected in any way possible.

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  12. Those are all unique to me. I haven't seen them before. The detail comes through nicely in your photos.

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  13. Nuzzling: thank you - this took so many tries. and I thought it'd be a snap!

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  14. Lots of neat coins! The animals are much more interesting than presidents! The final photo with the bear...awesome!

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  15. gtyyup: animals on money should be mandatory (they are so interesting).

    I hope Ed came back to see the bear.

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  16. Oooh! I love all the wildlife and animals on your coins. We should have that in the US, too. Defintely horses...the mustang is an American symbol!

    Nice photos, all!

    ~Lisa

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  17. Lisa: there must be somewhere you could start a petition to get new coins minted...

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  18. I don't know anything about Canadian money but we often get Canadian pennies here in RI...I always thought that with the maple leaf they are one of the prettiest coins:)

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  19. Oliag: I bet you didn't realize that all US coins are accepted at par in Canada.

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  20. love the rabbit and the 2 dollar coin is so shiny! Thanks for sharing. Better hold on to it:)

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  21. Jeannette: the Centennial coin designs were also distinctive for having only the animal and no other features, like rocks or trees or something.

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  22. those notes are awesome!! i love them, makes me want to come to canada :)

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  23. I would take a picture of a coin outdoors on a lightly overcast day using the macro setting of my digital camera. But really these look great.

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  24. Chloe: they were a fun gimmick and very useful - I have bought many things using this 'money' (a free toaster oven, for instance)

    Geewits: that's an idea, I must practice with that (macro is not a favourite of mine). the problem really was trying to get all of my nine Olympic coins to show up.

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  25. I love foreign currency - it's so ... foreign!

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  26. I'm still not sure I understand the Canadian Tire money. Our coins were pretty boring until they started the Fifty States quarters a few years ago. Every once in a while they try to get everyone to be enamored of the dollar coins, but they are too close to the quarter size and people get them confused. It doesn't take much to confuse us here in the States.

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  27. I have a small collection of interesting and unusual coins for you to photograph one day if you want. The less shiny ones seem to photograph much better than the shiny ones. I remember reading something once about them having to dull down shiny surfaces when filming TV commercials..I think...

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  28. Very nice zoom-zoom shots. Enjoyed very much. Wish we could have like yours -animal prints on our coins.
    But ours have only statues of very important people in our history such as historians, scientists, poets, etc..
    Yes, being a go-greener and nature-adorer, I'd love to see some images representing our ''very rich nature''.

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  29. Susan: It's really very simple, if you spend, say $60, at the store and pay in cash you get a rebate of 60 cents in CT money that you can then use towards any other purchases in the store. It's not exactly 1%, but close. Now they have their own credit card, so if you use that, you get rewarded CT money on your card, again to be used for future spending sprees. If, however, you were to use a different credit card, you get nothing, no reward.

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  30. Scott: and soon you get to live with more foreign money.

    XUP: except the less shiny ones are usually not as sharply defined... but that makes sense also.

    Nihal: it is interesting what other countries find important enough to represent on their money. I imagine there must have been some lively debates when designing the euro notes!

    Susan: and that is one reason our loonie is gold and the toonie is two tone, since the quarter is only silver.

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  31. Canadian Tire money! I used to think it was the real thing. At some point, the Canadian dollar was so low, it nearly was.

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  32. Guillaume: yes, and those anecdotal stories of people trying to use it as real money in the States! I don't anyone who ever did, but the tales persisted.

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  33. I like Canada's use of animals on coins We didn't really get any intersting coinage (aside from buffalo nickles) until they designed a different quarter for every state.

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  34. SAW: it seems to be unanimous amongst all the Americans here. I think you should all rise up and demand the wildlife be fully represented!

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  35. Cool. Your coins are so much better than ours....

    Thanks for coming to see me...

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  36. Gee, these are wonderful coins. All very very pretty! And I love the different animals--And that twelve sided one...GREAT!

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  37. Robin: we have animal megnetism, up here.

    Naomi: I don't know what happened to the 12-sided nickel. the penny used to be 12-sided too, but both are now just the ordinary round shape.

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  38. This post was great fun. But what are loonies and toonies?

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  39. Persiflage: a loonie is our colloquial term for the $1 coin, so called because of the loon on the reverse side. a twoonie is the $2 coin, so called because it is, well, a two dollar coin. makes for fun headlines when the markets fluctuate!

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  40. Amazing currency, we don't seem to have very interesting money down this way, altho' my eldest daughter has a coin collection that she adds to every so often.

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  41. Sagittarian: I don't remember specifically what the NZ money looks like; I do remember the AU money had some pretty cool animals on it (they would do, wouldn't they?) I think we often don't see what is so usual to us as very interesting.

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