Winnipeggers flock to Mint for special toonies honouring life of Queen Elizabeth

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This article was published 08/12/2022 (1088 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Agnes Roziere and her four-year-old grandson Ellis lined up in the Royal Canadian Mint foyer hoping to exchange money for a specialty toonie honouring the life of Queen Elizabeth, who died in September.

“I think coins are priceless,” said Roziere, 70. “It’s something for future generations. It’s always nice to have.”

Roziere and Ellis have attended a half-dozen coin exchanges together.

“He loves it,” she said.

More than 4,000 visited the Mint for the exchange, which was open to the public Wednesday and Thursday.

Roziere said she wishes she could have purchased more than two coins. In past coin exchanges, the limit was five.

“People, of course, would love to have five, and we would love to give them five,” said Mint spokesperson Adrienne Wilson. “But it’s just a matter of supply and demand. And right now, we have more demand than supply.”

Wilson said it was the facility’s second-largest exchange with a turnout just shy of that for the Canada 150 commemorative coin.

To keep things fair, even the staff are limited to two coins. Wilson said she’ll be giving one of her coins in her family’s Christmas gift exchange.

“I’ll put one in there, and everyone will probably fight over that one,” she said.

To ensure as many people want coins get them, the Mint is hosting another exchange in January, she said.

About five million coins will enter the national coin distribution system this month, a new release said. Coins are also available at all banks.

“There has been so many people,” Wilson said. “Today we’re seeing a lot of just regular, everyday Canadians coming in that want to find a special way that they can commemorate the queen.”

While most other details remain unchanged, the specialty coin features a black outer ring to symbolize mourning of Canada’s late head of state.

“I think people are kind of shocked,” Wilson said. “I think some people are expecting a really really big change, but it is just a regular design of the darker ring.”

It’s a great way for Canadians to remember the queen’s passing, she added.

“She’s been our queen for all our all our lifetime,” said Norma Biebrick, 64. “And I mean, I guess at this point then they’ll start changing it over to, her picture won’t be on the coins anymore. So that’s going to be a real keepsake.”

Biebrick said she started collecting coins when her daughter was born.

“We would buy the birth set every year… and then then we started doing the coin exchange, and then we were hooked,” she said.

Wanting a keepsake for their 10 grandchildren, Chris and Ron Cooke waited in line both days of the exchange and got a total of eight coins. They plan to return in January, picking up coins for their last two grandchildren.

“She was a very special lady,” Chris Cooke said.

Dorothea McGinnis expressed a similar point of view.

“I’m picking up a coin today because the queen was very important person in Canadian history and in the in the history of the world, really,” said McGinnis, 69, adding her daughter collects coins. “So I’m picking one up for her and I’m going to give it to her for Christmas.”

Don Condie had no immediate plans for his coin.

“It’s a good commemorative thing for the queen,” said Condie, 65. “(I’ll) just put it away and pass it on to the next generation.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca