Thursday 8 May 2008

Cara o Cruz! Heads or Tails! ..... Tails????



The first time that we used a coin to decide who was going to start the game I was surprised.

In my country, when a person throws a coin up into the air, we ask “Cara o Cruz”. The tranlation of this phrase into English would be “Head or Cross”, but here in Canada they say “Heads or Tails”. Tails? Why tails?

Because if you look at one Canadian Coin, on the one side it has the face of Queen Elizabeth II (head), but on the other side it has some of the most representative canadian animals or symbols.

There are seven denominations of Canadian coinage circulating: 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1, and $2. In everyday speech they are respectively called (in English) the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, loonie, and toonie (or twoonie), although none of these names are official. The 50 cent piece, though in circulation, is far less common to find than other coins.

In the reverse of the penny 1¢, there is the maple leaf.

In the reverse of the nickel 5¢ , there is the beaver.

In the reverse of the dime 10¢, there is a boat called schooner

In the reverse of the quarter 25¢, there is a caribou

In the reverse of a loonie 1$, there is a duck called “common loon”

And in the reverse of a toonie 2$, there is a polar bear.

Head and Tails?
Choose one!

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