CHEBUCTO CONNECTIONS YOUTH CORNER

Pre-teen corner

This month marks the first appearance of a new pre-teen issues column. Look for link to it from the newsletter index next month.

Pre-teen Corner

Twoonie tales

Despite my concerted efforts I have yet to be successful. Nonetheless, I have been consistently hearing tales of other people coast to coast trying to pop the middles out of Canada's new two dollar coin, dubbed to "twoonie," and often having great success. This led me to wonder -- what kind of society can we possibly be living in if our new national pastime has become trying to destroy our own coinage (c'mon people, the exchange rate isn't that bad that Canadian money isn't worth a thing!)

That said, it does seem like fun! However, I know of at least two people who have tried boiling and then freezing the coin in hopes of the outer metal ring expanding or the inner ring shrinking, and then hammering it, but to no avail. It seems this discussion is continuously a topic of great concern on some local BBSs I frequent, but really, does it warrant such heated debate? I have heard rumors that they may be re-calling the "faulty" coins, and I have also heard rumors that anyone caught popping the middle out of one (by the government I assume) can be fined upwards of two thousand dollars (a hefty price to pay for destroying only two dollars of this country's "riches!")

Perhaps I am dwelling too much on the subject, but what else would you write about if you were fresh out of ideas and had a column due in less than a day? Actually, I have two. One for Chebucto Connections and one for The Lion's Tale, my school's "official" newspaper!

Now, back to my discussion of Canada's new two dollar coin. Not too much to my surprise I was recently able to find some rather interesting and/or humorous Web-pages which focus on this very topic of discussion. I have to cut my column short this month, so here they are in random order:

Name The New Two Dollar Coin - Don't ask me. You decide.
Twoonie Press Release - Pretty banal, although if you're on the CCN much you should be used to that by now ;-)
Why The Two Dollar Coin is Good - A hoot! Download a JPEG image of a split genuine "twoonie" here!
Open For Business - An essay concerning the Canadian governments obsession with replacing bills with coins.
The Great Looney Bin Fiasco - You figure it out!

Well, that's all for this month. C'ya later! Cheers ;-)

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Last Month: March 1996 Next Month: May 1996