Canada 1-DOLLAR (KM157)

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.

The 1-dollar coin was introduced in 1987, to almost unanimous complaining. Seems Canadians didn't want change. The coin's nickname 'loonie' started out as a term of derision. Luckily, the government of the day had the political will to make the uneconomical-to-produce dollar bill disappear and now 'loonies' are as Canadian as...