Soon Canadians may be able to flaunt their millionaire status with the flip of a coin.
Canadian politicians have authorized the Royal Canadian Mint to begin planning a set of $1 million gold coins, the Ottawa Citizen reported Wednesday.
In this nation that already has beloved "loonie" and "twonie" $1 and $2 coins, the $1 million coin would knock the $1,900 2007 Gold Maple Leaf collector's coin out of running as the most expensive piece of Canadian coinage.
The $1 million gold coins will be geared to collectors, though some numismatists are wary of how popular these gold "loonies" will be and what standards will be used to produce them.
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"I've heard of 10-ounce coins, I've heard of kilo coins, but I've never heard of this," Bill Haynes, CMI Gold and Silver retail bullion house in Phoenix, Ariz., told the newspaper.
"I would guess they're making these coins because they know who the buyers are going to be," Haynes said.
It will take some time to figure out logistics, Mint officials told the newspaper.
"All we have, by way of this order in council [cabinet] from government, is a green light to produce it," said Alex Reeves, Mint spokesman. "The very least I can say is it's not something that's in the cards for 2007."
But the scheme has one politician joking that if the Mint uses the same gold purity standard as that of the Maple Leaf coin, it would take the gold mines in Yellowknife a week to mine enough gold to make just one.
MP Dennis Bevington said it would take 1,200 ounces — or 34 kilograms — of the metal to make just one coin at current purity standards.
"You don't want it to roll out of your pocket when you sit down, do you?" he told the paper.
One thing is certain: Americans would find the coin a bargain at just $843,500 American dollars.
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