A $5 dollar coin that boldly goes with Shatner

One of the things American tourists have to get used to when traveling abroad is the preponderance of different currencies, and the preponderance of different currency types. By this I mean not only converting, say, dollars to euros, but getting it out of your head that all coins are "less than a dollar" while all paper money is inherently worth more. Because beyond these shores, it's simply not the case.

And you don't even have to look beyond the borders of this very continent. Canada uses coins in higher denominations, from $2 to the $5 coin to the $10 coin and beyond. But for a very good reason, it's the Canadian $5 coin that attracts the most interest. Not only from Canadians, and not only because a 5 dollar coin is useful and convenient, but because of whose image graces the $5 coin.

You see, we Americans tend to be rather boring and stuffy with our coinage. Typically we put the faces of our greatest statesmen on our coins - people like Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson. Occasionally, in a fit of political forethought, we'll mint coins with the likes of Susan B. Anthony or Sakajaweia. But never have we done anything as creative and truly great as what the Canadians did with their $5 coin.

Thetoque.com has the story here:

Canada is ready to phase-in the country's first five-dollar circulation coin. Gaining approval and royal ascent for the proclamation authorizing the issue and prescribing the composition, dimensions, and design of the new coin has been a long trek, but with Canada's continuing mission to reduce the amount of paper money in circulation, a five-dollar coin was the next step. To coin a phrase, "It was only logical."

Canada's new five dollar coin features world-famous Canadian actor William Shatner.

The new 9.2-gram Canadian coin features an effigy of William Shatner, national hero and star of film and television.

The Ministry of Public Works and Government Services has been committed to replacing paper money with coins. Millions of dollars in printing costs will be saved with the five-dollar coin, although the initial minting of $600 million worth of coins is expected to be snatched up by collectors at warp speed.

Ok, ok, so this isn't actually true. But wouldn't the world be a better place if it was? Money is the root of all problems, or so the story goes, so it makes sense that, to ease our burden, we should plaster images of our most beloved icons on the coinage we carry.