In the mid-80s, Canada
radically redesigned its paper currency, giving it a modern, European look. A
friend once commented "our money now looks like large postage
stamps". While the fronts of the new bills were pleasing to the eye, and a nice break from the scroll-and-border design
heavy bills of the '70s, they really fumbled the ball on the obverse side.
They ditched impressive Canadian vistas for birds. Stupid birds. Great
countries are not built by sitting around all day admiring birds that eat
ticks off the back of deer. In the '80s they also got rid of the one dollar
bill and replaced it with the Loonie. Soon after they got rid of the two
dollar bill and replaced it with the Toonie. There's been some talk of
replacing the five dollar bill with a coin.. which I
guess might be called the Sankie ("cinq" + "ie" ... cinq
means five in french and that would sound a bit like "sank" so
maybe you'd called it a Sankie).
Anyway, here's the last complete series of bills, from
$1-$100.
$1 (issued 1973)
Color: Green
Front: Queen Elizabeth II
Back: Boats pushing logs on the Ottawa river.
Parliament Hill is in the background.
$2 (issued 1974)
Color: Terra cotta
Front: Queen Elizabeth II
Back: Inuit on BanffIsland stabbing things to death .
$3 (issued 1999)
Color: Maple Leaf Blue
Front: The guy from the I Am Canadian Commercial
Back: Men fighting in a parking lot outside of sports bar,
women in short dresses crying in the background.
$5 (issued 1972)
Color: Blue
Front: Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Back: Salmon trawler off the coast of Vancouver
Island.
$10 (issued 1971)
Color: Purple
Front: Sir John A. Macdonald
Back: Sarnia, Ontario
oil refinery
$20 (issued 1969)
Color: Green
Front: Queen Elizabeth II
Back: Mountains and Moraine Lake,
Alberta
$50 (issued 1975)
Color: Red
Front: William Lyon Mackenzie King
Back: Royal Canadian Mounted Police during a Musical Ride
$100 (issued 1975)
Color: Brown
Front: Sir Robert Borden
Back: Tall ships docked in Lunenburg
Harbour, Nova Scotia (odd
because few people in Nova Scotia
wouldn't have more than four dollars in their wallet)