The "Lucky Loonie" tradition began at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when ice maker Trent Evans buried a loonie beneath center ice at the E Center arena. Canadian athletes won gold in both men's and women's hockey that day, and the coin was quietly dug up afterward and donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The RCM has issued special loonie variants tied to subsequent Olympic cycles ever since, with the 2008 release anticipating the Beijing Summer Games — an unusual application of a hockey superstition to a summer athletics program.
The "Lucky Loonie" tradition began at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when ice maker Trent Evans buried a loonie beneath center ice at the E Center arena. Canadian athletes won gold in both men's and women's hockey that day, and the coin was quietly dug up afterward and donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The RCM has issued special loonie variants tied to subsequent Olympic cycles ever since, with the 2008 release anticipating the Beijing Summer Games — an unusual application of a hockey superstition to a summer athletics program.