10 Cents - Canadian Tire 'Money' 50th Anniversary

Canadian Tire 'money' was introduced in 1958 as a loyalty scheme to compete with gas stations offering trading stamps. By 1972, when this anniversary piece was issued, the program had become deeply embedded in Canadian retail culture — the coupons were widely accepted by third-party vendors, garage sales, and even some small businesses, a degree of informal secondary circulation that no corporate loyalty token was ever designed to sustain.

BA International — at that point still operating as British American Bank Note Company — printed the series in Ottawa, the same facility that produced federal currency for the Bank of Canada. That a retailer's promotional coupon came off presses with genuine security printing credentials was not incidental; Canadian Tire deliberately maintained banknote-grade production standards to discourage counterfeiting.