toonie

The nickname for the Canadian $2 coin. It was introduced in the mid-nineties. It is about 2.5cm wide by 3mm thick and has a gold center with a silver ring around it (the inverse of the British £ 2 coin). The back features a Polar Bear. The edge has five ridged sections (similar to the ridges on a quarter) seperated by five smooth sections.

Penny|Nickel|Dime|Quarter|Looney|Twoney

aka the doubloon, that is, double what a Loonie (the $1 coin) is worth.

The inner golden part has a picture of a polar bear on it, and the outer silver part says "Canada 2 Dollars". The year 2000 toonies come with three polar bears imprinted on the middle part.

When they first came out some years ago, there was a rumour that you could separate the outer silver part from the inner golden part by putting the coin in a freezer and then popping the middle out. I swear that my friend's-best friend's-brother's-girlfriend's-cousin's-sister's-friend's-mother's-nephew did it before. I tried this, and it never worked for me, no matter how hard I threw it. However, if anyone has been successful at separating the two parts, please tell me how it was done.

You know another name for the Canadian Toonie? The American dollar.

I was working at my high school McJob the year these things came out. Some kid came in at five minutes to close and wanted to pay for his ice cream cone with a broken toonie. Hell yeah, I said, then promptly swapped that toonie for an intact one in my own pocket. I am now the proud owner of a separated toonie. I used to wear the outer half on a chain around my neck.

Apparently, the way to separate the outer, silver part from the inner golden part is to rapidly freeze and heat the coin, as the metals would, in theory, have different thermal expansion capacities. I've heard the use of liquid nitrogen and boiling water is a useful combination. However, the people telling me these things never got around to separating their toonies.

Even though having a two-dollar coin can be nifty at times, I still miss the old two-dollar bill. Orange money can't be beat.