Canada 1-DOLLAR (KM1256)

Lucky Loonie

After minting three Lucky Loonies -- one every other year -- the Royal Canadian Mint took a break in 2010, skipping the Winter Olympics which gave the tradition its start in 2002. (See KM513 for the story on that.)

The tradition is back, with this coin design doing double shift for both the 2012 Summer Olympics and a 2014 issue for the Winter games. The loon is in a similar pose as the previous issue (KM787), however, there it was landing in the lake, and here it is just giving its wings a stretch and perhaps showing off a bit.

The Common Loon is a symbol of the Canadian wilderness and Ontario's provincial bird. The hauntingly beautiful sound of loons calling between lakes is like magic for wilderness campers. Loons are quite large -- up to 88 cm long and 6 kg in weight. They can dive up to 60 m to catch fish.