The "Montreal Mint"

On September 14, 2006, police in Repentigny, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, accompanied Revenue Quebec officials to a metal token manufacturing facility to carry out a search warrant for GST evasion. When officials entered the building, they discovered coin-making equipment, buckets of coins almost ready for circulation and raw materials for producing both $1 and $2 coins. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were alerted to the find. Read some media coverage of the find by following the links from our Media and Links page.

This series of counterfeit toonies, nicknamed "Montreal Mint Toonies", is the first major series of counterfeit toonies since 1996.

Identifying Montreal Mint Toonies

• Two years:
  • 2004 and 2005
  • All normal polar bear designs
• Curved edge between the legend and the rim
• Darker grey metal for ring vs. genuine coin
• Core is easily removed due to the lack of a locking mechanism
• Softer, less-defined features