> > Canada always has a monarch on one side but the "tails" side shows a lot of variety. I like that nickel with the beaver on the back.
>
Our two dollar coin has two polar bears on the tails side. When it first came out, the joke was that the coin featured the Queen on the front with a bear behind. Groan.

> And if you get a few Canadian coins from different time periods and look at the pictures on the obverse, you'll notice that they've changed over time. The penny, for example.
>
That's probably because we depict a living head of state on our coins, and the picture has to evolve if the Queen winds up looking much different than she used to. Since Liz II has been on the throne for a good while, we've been putting different faces on our coins.

You mentioned centennial coins. My dad has a centennial one dollar bill (those became coins in 1987) that has "1867 1967" instead of the serial number. I think it was the only Canadian banknote (or at least the only year) to have no serial numbers at all, and it certainly is odd.

^v^:)^v^
FB