Editorial Goodbye buck, hello coin

“The average guy on the street loves the coin.” Goodbye dollar bill, hello dollar coin.

We’re not quite sure how the Royal Canadian Mint’s communications director, Murray Church, can be so positive about it at this stage, when the Mint’s new $1 metal “buck” is just now hitting the street, but we applaud his conviction and his enthusiasm about public reaction to the new coin.

This week about 40 million of the coins, which are made of an amalgam of nickel (about 91.5%) , with an “aureate” coating of copper and tin that imparts a lustrous bronze color to the coin’s appearance, began circulating in major Canadian cities.

In total, we’re told by Mr Church, about 450 million of the coins will eventually be in circulation, as the dollar bill slowly fades into memory — and out of circulation, beginning in 1989.

It will at any rate be a nice piece of business (and a further reminder to the Canadian public of metal’s place in the sun), for Inco Ltd., which is supplying the nickel, and for Sherritt Gordon, which developed the coin’s aureate coating (about 88% copper, 12% tin). The latter in fact represents a new kind of technology, which may be exportable, just to add another gainful element to the coin’s development.

The Mint’s confidence aside, something of a question does remain how well the coin will take to the pockets and purses of Canadians. On this, Mr Church makes a telling point. Acknowledging that at seven grams the new coin is a bit heavier than the current quarter, he points out that it is only one-third the weight of four quarters.

More than just another coin, at any rate, the new dollar piece is acknowledged to be the most significant change to our coinage system in the last 50 years. There may be some doubters, but we think that like the now widely-accepted Maple Leaf gold coin, the country will take to the new “Loon” coin (the loon motif on one side of it) with enthusiasm.