1 Dollar - Elizabeth II Loonie

The common loon dollar — introduced in 1987 to replace the discontinued one-dollar bill — was itself a product of cost-cutting logic: paper dollars wore out within a year of circulation, while the coin was projected to last decades. Canada was not the first to make this switch, but the transition met unusual public resistance until the government simply withdrew the notes from circulation and forced adoption. By 2012, the design had been in continuous production for twenty-five years with only minor modifications to the effigy.