All about Canadian coins and bills.
• In 2011, the Mint rolled out two 25-cent pieces in honor of cryptids. One depicts Memphré, a serpent-like creature with a dragon-like head peering from the waves as its snaky body propels it through the waters of Lake Memphremagog. The other coin shows Mishepishu, which means great lynx, with its wildcat shape. This is a mysterious beast from Ojibwe legend that lurks in the depths of Lake Superior. Myth has it that Mishepishu swims the waters of the Great Lakes and protects the precious copper found in the stones there.
• In 2004, Canada made history when it introduced the world’s first colored coin. The Canadian quarter proudly displayed a bright red poppy that year. The poppy is Canada’s flower of remembrance, paying homage to the nearly 117,000 Canadians who have died in war since the birth of the country. The coin triggered a bizarre reaction among U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada, who had never seen anything like it. They erroneously thought that there was nanotechnology built into the coin and that Canada might somehow be using the coins as devices of espionage. The U.S. Department of Defense issued a warning about these supposed spy coins, suggesting that transmitters in the coins might secretly track people. The Department of National Defence soon realized its error and retracted all warnings.
• In 2007, the Mint created what was then the largest coin in the world. The Canadian coin had a face value of $1 million. Made of pure gold, the coin weighs in at 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and features Queen Elizabeth II on the face and Canada’s national symbol—the maple leaf—on the back. The coin measures 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) in diameter and 3 centimeters (just over an inch) thick. The mint took about six weeks to produce the coin. In 2010, the coin was auctioned to Spain’s Oro Direct, a precious metal company, for just over $4 million. (It lost the largest-coin title in 2011, when Australia issued a coin that was 10 times heavier.)
• The Royal Canadian Mint killed the penny in 2012. Pennies are no longer being produced, and as they return to financial institutions, they are being melted down. Why eliminate the penny? The government says it costs about $11 million a year to supply pennies. With other coins, the government says it “earns more from the sale of coins at face value than it pays to the mint for their production.”
• Canada introduced a new $20 bill in 2013, and it is almost indestructible. The bills, which are made out of polymer rather than cotton fiber, are impervious to boiling water, unaffected when set on a hot plate with a temperature of 85° Celsius (185° Fahrenheit), and unharmed when put in a deep freeze of −45 degrees Celsius (−49 degrees Fahrenheit). The bill is also designed to thwart counterfeiters with a hologram of the Queen and a metallic Peace Tower that shines and subtly changes colors when tilted. The new material means that the bills will be in circulation longer. The government is expected to save $200 million over the next eight years from not having to print as many new bills.
• The design of the new bill has caused concern among some Canadians because it features an image of the Vimy Memorial in northern France, the largest monument overseas for Canadian soldiers lost in the First World War. The memorial has naked figures representing Justice, Peace, and Hope. Some were offended to see three nude women on their currency.
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MYSTERY EARTHQUAKES SWARM NEW BRUNSWICK
McAdam, a tiny, quiet town in southwestern New Brunswick, is all shook up. At least, that’s how the townspeople felt in the spring of 2012 when a series of 35 minor tremors struck the town in a five-week stretch. The shocks were generally under 3 in magnitude—not enough to do much damage but enough to rattle windows, get floors creaking, and jolt pictures off the walls.
Some locals describe hearing a loud bang or boom along with the movement of the earth. One local said it was like a thud you hear when someone falls out of bed, and another said it was similar to a dynamite blast. Scientists call the phenomenon an “earthquake swarm,” but they’re not sure why McAdam was feeling the bad vibrations. They are exceedingly rare, though, and that it could be a sign that a big earthquake could be coming in the future. Since the swarm, there haven’t been any reports of earthquakes but some residents are waiting for the next, bigger shoe to drop.
The highest recorded temp in Canada was 45 °C/113 °F in Midale, Saskatchewan, in 1937