Small change, big deal

Change has changed in Canada over the past 11 years, with the introduction of the photogenic ‘loonie’ (one dollar coin) in 1987, and the equally striking ‘townie’ (two dollar coin) a few years ago, the fact is, change isn’t change anymore in this country, not in the North American sense; it’s now change in the European/Asian Sense, which is something else altogether. Indeed, in the global coin picture we’re still beginners. At least a dozen countries outside this continent have coins worth $5 and up; the current leader is the Japanese 500 yen coin. Regardless, when countries move to higher denomination cons, they usually do it for two reasons; to satisfy demands from major coin users, i.e. transit authorities with coin-in slot payment systems, the vending industry (try paying for a $3 tuna sandwich with quarters); and to save money (the townie will save the taxpayer$250 million over the next 20 years). What they often fail to anticipate is the revolutionary effect the new change can have at the grassroots level of our monetary culture.

Any Canadian knows that change warps a pocket. In the past, it was easy to shell out a dollar or tow-doing so made our pockets and purses lighter. Nowadays, a few coins equal a lot of money. At the same time, what once cost 75 cents in a vending machine now costs a dollar, and what once cost $1.50 has gone up to $2. Caroline Manton, Executive Director of CAMA, the Canadian Automatic Merchandising Association, admits that vending machine prices have risen, but maintains that the rises have coincided with an increase in the size of the product. While it’s true that some soft drinks did increase in can size from 2800 ml to 355 ml around the time of the loonie’s introduction, and the standard potato chip bag swelled by about 20 per cent, the advantages are largely mythical.

And the there is the ‘Panhandling Windfall’. A busker who’s been playing classical guitar at a Toronto subway stop near my house for the past six years claims that in the 30-day period following the introduction of the townie of February 1996, he tripled his daily take. It’s not surprising. Two years ago, dropping a two dollar bill into a guitar case would have been regarded as the height of philanthropy; today dropping a townie can seem almost stingy. One photographer friend of mine recently estimated that he’d given the same homeless person more than $400 in a single year without realizing it. Meanwhile, the ‘squeegee kids’ swarming the intersections of Canada’s larger cities regularly take in $100 over a four-hour period providing unsolicited car windshield-washing.

But what about the advantages of large denomination coins to the non-panhandling citizen? If you’re a waiter, you don’t have to ask. Because most tips that are left in Canadian restaurants are rendered in change, the natural instinct is to leave a bigger pile of coins to make up for the fact that no paper is included-a naked loonie just isn’t as impressive as a dollar bill.

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