50 Cents - Canadian Tire 'Money' 75th Anniversary

Canadian Tire's paper coupons — officially "Canadian Tire Money" but never legal tender — were first issued in 1958 as a gasoline discount scheme, modelled loosely on the trading stamp promotions then saturating North American retail. By the mid-1990s, roughly 99% of Canadians recognized them on sight, a brand saturation that few actual currencies could claim. The 1996 75th anniversary issue commemorates the founding of the corporation itself in 1922, not the coupon program.

BA International, formerly British American Bank Note Company, printed the series using the same security printing infrastructure it applied to genuine Canadian government issues — an irony the corporation has never been shy about exploiting for novelty value.