Time to give U.S., Canadian coins equality

Who's idea was it to redesign U.S. quarters so they're easily confused with Canadian ones? Now that the value of the currencies is approaching parity, this is getting tricky.

Anyone who travels between countries and then tries to use a vending machine or operate a coin laundry is in for a surprise. Newer U.S. quarters have an individual state's design on the tail side. While Canadian quarters are slightly thinner, who can tell between a coin with a Canadian caribou and one with, say, Kansas bison?

With the greenback tanking, the dollars are closer in value than at any time since the early 1980s. Considering Canada's economic fundamentals and the Bush Administration's apparent desire to devalue the U.S. currency, it's possible that the dollars could match again, a change that would affect everything from trade to Whistler bar tips. Maybe Cascadia should take the lead by rejiggering its coin machines now.

Comments

[Vincent]

We might witness a return of the canadians coming to the US for bargains rather than the other way around. I remember in my youth in Quebec, malls were built in sparsely populated areas near the border to meet the demand.

[B.D.]

I want to know when are we going to finally get rid of $1 bills and have only $1 and $2 coins like the loonies and twonies. Let's dump pennies at the same time. Oh yeah, that means $1 coines that are big like a loonie and not our two (three as of today?) current $1 coin designs which are all almost the size of quarters, hard to tell apart, and get rejected when I try to use them at a convenience store "what is that, Canadian?".

[Andrew Taylor]

Are you all too young to remember the 1980's when Canadian coins often circulated (i.e. treated as US coins) in the Seattle area? It was just a sort of unofficial courtesy. Most stores just did it. The two currencies were close to parity then, the Canadian ones being worth a little less.

The idea finally fell apart when an ingenious citizen got lots of Canadian coins and started using them for all her transactions (I think s/he was a her).

Maybe the quaint old custom will resurface, eh?

Andrew