5 Cents - Canadian Tire Coupon

Canadian Tire's coupon currency — colloquially called "Canadian Tire money" — was introduced in 1958 as a loyalty scheme tied to cash purchases at Canadian Tire gas stations. The coupons were deliberately designed to resemble legal tender, a decision that generated periodic complaints to the federal government but never legal action, as the notes carried no claim of being official currency.

BA International, the Ottawa-based security printer with roots going back to 1866, produced these using the same intaglio-adjacent processes applied to genuine banknotes. The resemblance was entirely intentional. By 1992, Canadian Tire money had become so culturally embedded that some merchants outside the chain began accepting it informally — an unofficial secondary circulation the company never actively discouraged.