Will we see a $5 coin sometime soon? It seems it might happen, but this latest article seems to put it to rest for a bit. It lasts 20 years versus 1 year for a bill, makes sense to save this money. And it could be smaller and/or lighter, like a £1 coin. One thing is that it'd be spent more easily on whims, because, Hey, it's just a coin!
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Aug. 21, 2005. 04:35 PM
Ottawa nixes $5 coin proposal to help athletes
FROM CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — The federal government has backed off from a proposal to replace Canada's $5 paper currency with a more economical $5 coin and use the savings to help fund the country's Olympic athletes.
The offbeat suggestion, first raised by the Royal Canadian Mint, was taken seriously enough by the Finance Department that it commissioned a polling firm last spring to conduct a focus-group study.
Environics Research held sessions May 3-5 with small groups of Canadians in Halifax, Hamilton and Winnipeg.
Participants overwhelmingly rejected the very idea of a $5 coin and dismissed the Olympic-funding idea as "ridiculous."
"The proposal to direct these savings to the athletes was greeted with notable hostility," Environics said in a June 2005 report, obtained by The Canadian Press.
Participants reacted strongly when asked whether Canadian athletes headed to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver should benefit from the currency switch:
— ``Absolutely ridiculous idea."
— ``Give me a break! There are so many other burning issues where the money could be spent."
— ``I'm embarrassed to be Canadian sometimes."
— ``Do you freaking believe this?"
The Royal Canadian Mint has studied whether to introduce a $5 coin on at least two other occasions, in 1995 and 2000, and reviewed the idea again in the spring.
The attraction is partly economic. A 1994 Bank of Canada study estimated that replacing the $1 bill with the loonie coin in 1987 saved the federal government $487 million over the first five years, partly because coins are more durable and need to be replaced less often than bills.
The Finance Department declined to release its preliminary estimate of the monetary benefits from converting to a $5 coin, although Environics told participants the savings might be worth ``hundreds of millions of dollars."
Most of those in the focus groups disliked the proposed coin because, along with loonies and toonies, it would mean carrying around too much heavy change — even if the $5 coin was made lighter than its cousins.
And although people said government should support athletes, most thought any savings from a paper-to-coin conversion should go to health care, helping the homeless and social programs.
A spokesman for the Finance Department said the Environics study has effectively killed the proposal to help Olympic athletes in this way.
"It was never Finance's intention to switch to a $5 coin for this purpose," David Gamble said in an interview.
"This is a concept that was first presented by the Royal Canadian Mint as part of its ongoing research into coinage issues."
Gamble said his department commissioned the focus-group study to make comparisons with the mint's own research.
"There are no plans for any further discussions on this issue," Gamble added.
A spokeswoman for the mint, Christine Aquino, confirmed that the Olympic-funding proposal was included in its research this year into a $5 coin, but said the proposal to replace the paper currency has since been dropped.
Aquino declined to provide further details, such as whether the mint had done its own polling on the Olympics suggestion.
Canada's $2 coin, now known as the toonie, was introduced in 1996. A government spokesman at the time said the changeover would save Ottawa $250 million over 20 years.
Earlier this year, the federal government agreed to provide $55 million over the next five years to boost the performance of Canada's athletes at the 2010 Olympics.

Well, if it's going to save money, I don't really have anything against switching. I usually use debit or credit card anyway. I'm not a big fan of carrying cash.

I'm actually wondering if it makes more sense to get rid of the penny. Would there be a savings related to this? Please don't all s**t on me at once as I have no clue what the economics of currency production entails.

Would there be a savings related to this? Please don't all s**t on me at once as I have no clue what the economics of currency production entails.

Yes, there would be savings. Currency production has more in common with other factories than direct influence on economics (outside of the volume they produce).

Eliminating pennies would eliminate a product line. That in itself would save money. Doing away with the penny is a little more difficult though. Yes, rounding to the nearest nickle is simple enough but would this impact credit card or other purchases?

How about bank account balance? Currently banks track interest to about one thousandth of a cent but only give it to you when it reaches a full cent.

Or should we just lop off one entire decimal place and do away with the nickle at the same time. Tenths of a dollar would be easier to deal with than twentieths.

Can we get rid of the 1c and 2c coins first. There really have no value any more.

2cent coins???

I think that the propsoal makes sense in ways but I think it would just make more sense to introduce a collectors $5 coin instead and not have any in currency (like the 50c piece), and just use the money generated from that to fund athletes. A $5 coin would be nice if it meant savings but I find that I already have too much change and introducing more would make things harder.

the us mint will continue to make american pennies because it only costs 0.8 cents to make one penny. when the mint sells the pennies to the bank, it makes 0.2 cents profit for every penny sold (and they make 55 billion, or something like that, every year). i assume the same is true in canada. they will continue to make pennies as long as the government makes a profit from producing and selling them.

^^ But how do you explain this - Australia and New Zealand both abolished the 1c coin during the early 1990s.

It won't surprise me if Canada does the same thing down the road.

I heard that it costs 1.5 cents to produce a penny which is a complete waste if you ask me.

Why do they make the 50¢ coin anyway? Is it worth it for just the collectors? And why don't they just put them out in circulation if they make it?

I believe one of Kim Campbell's election promise was to get rid of pennies.

I think the big flaw of that poll (not this thread's) was that it tied in the $5 coin with the olympics. Even if a person would be willing to convert if it saved money, they may not be willing to give it to olympics. It made the poll a bit biased.

On a personal level, I'm for the $5 coin. I've never had an issue with the weight of coins simply because I dump my coins & roll it once in a blue moon. It's a forced savings plan. $5 I won't dump, but I'll only have so many at once, so I say go for it.

A 5$ coin would be way better than a bill. We could all stop carrying toonies and loonies around. The real problem with canadian coins is that they are all too damn big (except for the dime) And also, why are nickels bigger than dimes? Why are pennies bigger?

^ Yeah, I've often wondered that.

I say we just get rid of the monetary system and bring back bartering.

"I'll give you three pens for that loaf of bread."

I heard that it costs 1.5 cents to produce a penny which is a complete waste if you ask me.

Actually this was only true during the past when pennies were made entirely of 100% copper. People use to go to banks, get a bunch of pennies then go to a scrap yard and make a 50% profit, which result in a huge lack of pennies in circulation. If you've ever snapped a penny in two (ie. put it over a bunsen burner and snap it) you'll see that pennies now are only copper coated and are primarily zinc. I don't know how much it costs to make one penny, but from what I know, it's less than 1c.

The real problem with canadian coins is that they are all too damn big (except for the dime) And also, why are nickels bigger than dimes? Why are pennies bigger?

The reason for the sizing of coins has to do in part with rolling coins (ie, stopping people from putting pennies in dime rolls) but also has somewhat to do with the traditional British System of currency from which our system originated.

Why do they make the 50¢ coin anyway? Is it worth it for just the collectors? And why don't they just put them out in circulation if they make it?

The 50c piece mainly has to do with traditional British system of currency. For the longest time it was a normal part of Canadian's every day lives, but once the US system became more dominant in the region the coin began to get less usage. Also, most coin operated machines (ie. pop, laundry, snacks) were primarily US made so when 50c became of less use in ways. Slowly the mint realized that it was getting use usage in ways, and slowly stopped entering them into the system. Techincally, they are still valid as circulaiton currency (actually most banks still carry them and you can request them), but most people now just think they're just an oblong quarter.

I doubt it will happen, for sure not with in the next 10 years.

Why do they make the 50¢ coin anyway? Is it worth it for just the collectors? And why don't they just put them out in circulation if they make it?

Actually they tried to do this in 2001, look it up on Wikipedia.org...its pretty interesting.

Actually this was only true during the past when pennies were made entirely of 100% copper. People use to go to banks, get a bunch of pennies then go to a scrap yard and make a 50% profit, which result in a huge lack of pennies in circulation. If you've ever snapped a penny in two (ie. put it over a bunsen burner and snap it) you'll see that pennies now are only copper coated and are primarily zinc. I don't know how much it costs to make one penny, but from what I know, it's less than 1c.



The reason for the sizing of coins has to do in part with rolling coins (ie, stopping people from putting pennies in dime rolls) but also has somewhat to do with the traditional British System of currency from which our system originated.



The 50c piece mainly has to do with traditional British system of currency. For the longest time it was a normal part of Canadian's every day lives, but once the US system became more dominant in the region the coin began to get less usage. Also, most coin operated machines (ie. pop, laundry, snacks) were primarily US made so when 50c became of less use in ways. Slowly the mint realized that it was getting use usage in ways, and slowly stopped entering them into the system. Techincally, they are still valid as circulaiton currency (actually most banks still carry them and you can request them), but most people now just think they're just an oblong quarter.

But British currency doesn't have a quarter, and it does have a 2p coin (which Canada doesn't). I guess it's multiply influenced (by the UK and US). It's interesting, the pennies are the same size, the 5p coin is sized like the 10¢ coin, the 10p coin is shaped like the 25¢ coin, the 20p coin is strange with multiple edges, nothing's like the 5¢ coin, $1 or $2 coin.