Anyone who's travelled to Canada may know this next factoid but there are lots of people on this board who live very, very far away, so I'll post it anyway.
Our one-dollar coin is called a Loonie. Yup. The original form, which came out in 1987, had a picture of a loon on the tails side (and, as always, the queen on the heads side). There have been many commemorative loonies since then, with people, soldiers, the Parliament buildings...but they're still loonies. The standard one still has a loon on it.
Then, in 1996, they decided we needed a two dollar coin to replace our two dollar bill. It has bears on it, and it's one of those nifty two-metal coins with a bronze middle and a nickel outer ring. There were numerous contests all over the country to name the new coin and lots of cute names were proposed. However, they are now informally called Toonies. I think it's a pun on the 2 dollar value, plus it rhymes with Loonie. But it's not usually spelled Twonie. Now THERE'S one to look up in my Oxford Canadian Dictionary at home.
I found pictures of them at the Royal Canadian Mint's homepage products catalogue: Click on One Dollar or Two Dollar coin:
http://www.rcmint.ca/products/en/main.cfm?Product_Id=100&Section_Id=2&Area=ProductsAs an aside, they produce all the Canadian coins in Winnipeg, my hometown. Yay Winnipeg!
