Really, this exists?

Recently I was going through my change looking for loonies and quarters to add to the laundry money pile when I noticed that one of my loonies looked particularly new, and a little different. Upon closer inspection I learned that I was in possession of a loonie commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Montreal Canadians, an NHL hockey team.



I am really not sure exactly how I feel about this development. In many ways I understand that the Habs and hockey hold a special place in the hearts of many Canadians. I understand that people might want to celebrate a 100th anniversary with commemorative coins and stamps. In this case the Metro chain of grocery stores also seems to be involved as the sole distributor of the coins, presumably to encourage Habs fans to go to a Metro if they want to get copies of the coin. I guess I just find interesting that official currency is being used to promote the business interests of private companies.

On the other hand, if such ventures are cost-shared between the Mint and the Habs (and Metro) this may be a way of reducing the costs of currency production for tax-payers in a rather innovative and positive way. I guess I wonder how expandable such a program is. While I, and other Canadians, might be willing to see team logos of the Habs or the Leafs on coins on important anniversaries, would I feel comfortable allowing any company or group with sufficient funds to advertise by way of buying the tails side of a coin? If you allowed such a coin for They Bay would there be much public outcry? Now that such a precedent has been set will it be harder for the Mint to turn down such offers from other enterprises, and should I worry about this possible commercialization of the currency system.

Interestingly, it seems that this is by no means the first Canadian coin with a NHL team logo to exist (though I get the sense it is the first in regular circulation). When I checked out some of the Mint's sports related collectibles I found that most Canadian NHL teams already have collector's sets. At the moment I can find no evidence of the Mint selling coins with the logos of more traditional businesses, but it just doesn't seem to be that much of a stretch to think that they could exist in the not too distant future and that it might be nice to have some public discussion of such a change before it is implemented (I don't mean to suggest that such a plan is in the works, just that it seems plausible given the current practice of putting sports logos on coins).