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Canadian coins

Ratio, rates and money · level 1, lesson 4 of 5

A question to start

Here are two coins. One is a dime. One is a nickel. The nickel is bigger. Which one would you rather have?

Most people pick the bigger coin. It feels like more! But the small dime is worth 10 cents, and the big nickel is worth only 5 cents. The dime is worth twice as much as the nickel, even though it is smaller.

So how can you tell what a coin is worth, if size does not tell you? In this lesson you will meet all the coins of Canada, learn their names and what each one is worth, and find out how to sort them the smart way.

The idea

Money and cents

Money is what we use to buy things. In Canada, money is counted in dollars and cents. A cent is a very small amount. 100 cents make 1 dollar.

Coins are small round pieces of metal money. Paper money (or plastic money, in Canada) is called bills. In this lesson we look at the coins.

The five coins

Canada uses five coins today. Here they are, from the one worth the least to the one worth the most. The drawings show their real sizes compared with each other.

nickeldimequarter loonietoonie 5 cents10 cents25 cents 1 dollar2 dollars
Coin Worth Colour Picture on the back How to spot it
Nickel 5 cents silver a beaver medium-sized, smooth edge
Dime 10 cents silver a sailing ship called the Bluenose the smallest coin, thin
Quarter 25 cents silver a caribou (a kind of reindeer) bigger than the nickel
Loonie 1 dollar gold a loon, a bird that swims on lakes gold, with 11 flat sides
Toonie 2 dollars silver ring, gold middle a polar bear the biggest, two colours

All the coins have the King or Queen of the day on the front. Some years the Mint makes special coins with other pictures on the back, so you may find a quarter with a poppy or a loonie with a different bird. The size and colour still tell you which coin it is.

The loonie is named after the loon bird on it. When the 2-dollar coin came along, people called it the toonie, because it is "two loonies". The names were a joke that stuck!

What happened to the penny?

You might find a small copper coin in a drawer at home. That is a penny, worth 1 cent. Canada stopped giving out pennies in 2013, because each one cost more to make than it was worth. Now, when you pay with coins and bills, the total is rounded to the nearest 5 cents, so nickels are the smallest coins you need.

Size does not tell you the worth

Let us put the coins in order by size, from smallest to biggest:

dime, nickel, quarter, loonie, toonie

And now in order by worth, from least to most:

nickel, dime, quarter, loonie, toonie

The two lists are almost the same. But the dime and the nickel are swapped! The dime is the smallest coin, but it is worth more than the nickel.

Why? Long ago, dimes were made with silver, a metal that cost a lot. A small piece of silver was already worth 10 cents. The 5-cent coin was later made from cheaper metal, so it had to be bigger to be easy to handle. Today the metals are different, but the sizes stayed. The worth of a coin is just a rule that everyone agrees on. It is not about how big or heavy it is.

Proving the dime is worth more: trading

Here is how you can show that a dime is worth more than a nickel. A shop will happily trade:

2 nickels for 1 dime.

5510 = 2 nickels: 10 cents1 dime: 10 cents

You need two nickels to match one dime. So one nickel is worth less than one dime. In fact a nickel is worth exactly half of a dime.

Here are more trades. Each one is a fair swap: both sides are worth the same.

You give You get
2 nickels 1 dime
5 nickels 1 quarter
4 quarters 1 loonie
2 loonies 1 toonie

Look at the 4 quarters. Count them by 25s: 25, 50, 75, 100 cents. And 100 cents make 1 dollar, a loonie. So the trade is fair.

Sorting coins

To sort means to put things that are alike together. You can sort a pile of coins in two ways.

  • By what they look like. All the nickels in one pile, all the dimes in another, and so on. Use colour first (gold coin? two colours?), then size.
  • By what they are worth. Line the piles up from least to most: nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies, toonies.

Sorting first makes counting much easier later. You will count coins in level 2.

Worked examples

Example 1. Name the coin. A gold coin with 11 flat sides and a bird on the back. What is it, and what is it worth?

  1. Gold coins: only the loonie is all gold. (The toonie is two colours.)
  2. The 11 flat sides and the loon bird agree.
  3. It is a loonie, worth 1 dollar.

Example 2. Which is worth more? A quarter or a nickel?

  1. The quarter is worth 25 cents. The nickel is worth 5 cents.
  2. 25 is more than 5, so the quarter is worth more.
  3. Here size gives the same answer (the quarter is bigger). But always check the worth, not the size, because the dime breaks the size rule.

Example 3. Put in order. Put these in order of worth, least first: a toonie, a dime, a loonie, a nickel.

  1. Write what each is worth: toonie 2 dollars, dime 10 cents, loonie 1 dollar, nickel 5 cents.
  2. The cents coins are worth less than the dollar coins, because 100 cents make just 1 dollar.
  3. Among the cents coins: nickel (5) then dime (10).
  4. Among the dollar coins: loonie (1) then toonie (2).
  5. Order: nickel, dime, loonie, toonie.

Example 4. A fair trade? Sam offers you 3 nickels for your dime. Is that a good trade for you?

  1. A dime is worth 10 cents.
  2. 3 nickels: count by fives, 5, 10, 15. So 15 cents.
  3. 15 cents is more than 10 cents. You would gain 5 cents. It is a good trade for you (and Sam should count again!).

Try it

  1. Which coin is the smallest? What is it worth?
  2. Which coin has a polar bear on it? What is it worth?
  3. Which is worth more: a loonie or a quarter?
  4. How many nickels do you need to trade for one dime?
  5. Put in order of worth, least first: quarter, nickel, toonie, dime.
  6. Leo says: "My nickel is bigger than your dime, so I have more money." Is Leo right? Explain.
  7. How many loonies make one toonie? How many quarters make one loonie?
  8. You have 2 coins. Together they are worth 15 cents. Which 2 coins are they?
Answers
  1. The dime. It is worth 10 cents.
  2. The toonie. It is worth 2 dollars.
  3. The loonie. A loonie is 1 dollar, which is 100 cents. A quarter is 25 cents. 100 is more than 25.
  4. 2 nickels. 5 cents and 5 cents make 10 cents, the worth of a dime.
  5. Nickel (5 cents), dime (10 cents), quarter (25 cents), toonie (2 dollars).
  6. No. Size does not tell the worth. Leo's nickel is worth 5 cents, and the dime is worth 10 cents. The dime is worth more, even though it is smaller.
  7. 2 loonies make a toonie (1 dollar and 1 dollar make 2 dollars). 4 quarters make a loonie (25, 50, 75, 100 cents, and 100 cents is 1 dollar).
  8. A dime and a nickel. 10 cents and 5 cents make 15 cents. (Try the others: two nickels make 10, a nickel and a quarter make 30, two dimes make 20. Only the dime and nickel work.)

Common mistake

Thinking bigger means worth more. It almost always works, which is why it is such a trap. The dime is smaller than the nickel but worth twice as much. Always say the coin's name and its worth, not just "the big one".

Counting coins instead of cents. "I have 3 coins and you have 1, so I have more" is not right. Three nickels (15 cents) are worth less than one quarter (25 cents). It is the worth that counts, not how many coins.

Where it leads