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| The "Loony" |
When it comes to currency the Canadians have their stuff together. First, they have eliminated the $1 bill and the penny. To make up for that they have a $1 coin (the" Loony") and a $2 coin (the "Two-ny"). Paper currency is printed in different colors and looks pretty cool. Since we passed through Canada in 2011, they have upgraded the currency such that it contains a clear cellophane strip with a hologram-like image, which I expect makes the bills difficult, if not impossible to counterfeit. The US Treasury could learn something from the Canadians. The Loony and the Two-ny and the quarter are fairly close in size, but are different colors.
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| Common folding cash |
Best of all $1.00 CAD currently equals approximately $0.75 USD. That means if you buy something at the store in Canada, and it has a price of $10.00 on it, it actually costs only $7.50 in real money. Sweet! When we were in Canada in 2011, the Canadian dollar was worth about a penny or 2 more than a US dollar. We didn't use much Canadian cash on this trip. We have a VISA card that doesn't charge a Foreign Transaction Fee, normally 3%, and offers the current daily rate of international exchange.
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| A little jingle |
The Canadians like to put animals on their coins. Of course, the Loony has a loon. The Two-ny has a bear, the quarter a caribou and the nickle has a beaver. For some reason the dime has a sailing ship. Go figure.
The US should take hint and make their currency more sensible. After that maybe they could adopt the metric system .....
4 comments:
Interesting. I think I still have a coin or two laying around from long ago. You have a favorable exchange rate, but is fuel still a lot higher?
For most our time in Canada diesel prices seemed to run around about $1.15/L CAD or about $3.35/gal USD. We only bought fuel once. I pumped 255 liters or about 67 gallons about 50 miles north of Toronto and the price was $0.097/L CAD or about $2.79/gal USD. That's not a terrible price. In Hillsville VA, not far from home, diesel is selling for $2.22/gal. We'll top off there on our way home.
We are holding about $90 in Canadian cash. We'll keep it since we plan to go to Alaska next summer and will pass through Canada. I think the Canadian dollar has risen slightly compared to the US dollar during our trip. Maybe it will be a good investment.
How easy is it traversing to and from Canada as far as having the proper paperwork? Do you have to have a passport? I heard it is harder to get into the US without a passport or some type of enhanced drivers license (which Georgia does not offer). Sounds like your experience was relatively painless but that might be because you had a passport and required paperwork. Dianne
The paperwork is pretty simple. We carried passports, Matilda's rabies certificate and certification cards from our insurance company proving coverage in Canada. The agents usually only asked for our passports. Dorcas did a lot of research about restricted items, and we made a list of any items of concern. I can't say that you could cross without a passport, but I wouldn't try it. A passport is easy to obtain; it just takes a little lead time.
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