Mint downplays StatCan, expert’s reports on recent proliferation of fake toonies

By James Risdon

Counterfeit toonies are cropping up in Canada at a rate that is more than doubling every year, Statistics Canada data show.

From 1,300 fake $2 coins reported in 2019, there were 28,666 last year. That’s a 22-fold increase over four years in the number of counterfeit toonies deemed to have passed into circulation or been seized before they made it into general circulation.

Counterfeit coins expert Mike Marshall says this is only the tip of the iceberg. The reality of counterfeit coins in Canada is much, much worse, he maintains.

“That is only a drop in the bucket,” he says. “Over a 12-month period in the province of Ontario, we were doing reams of coin roll searches all over the province. We went to banks, purchased rolls of toonies, and checked them for counterfeits. We were running between seven and nine per cent counterfeit.”

That estimate, if correct, would mean there are roughly 10 million counterfeit toonies in Canada.

The Royal Canadian Mint maintains there are relatively few counterfeit coins in circulation.

In Canada, the mint makes all of Canada’s circulation coins and manages the national coin supply. That includes weekly forecasting, production, recycling and eventual retirement of coins across the country.

“As part of operating the coin management system, the mint conducts regular sampling of its circulation coins to ensure the integrity of Canada’s coin ecosystem,” noted Alex Reeves, a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mint. “That includes roughly one billion $2 coins that have entered circulation since 1996.

“The mint works with its coin distribution partners and gathers physical evidence and empirical data to monitor the state of coins circulating around the country. This expert monitoring indicates that the presence of counterfeit $2 coins remains very low.”

Not so, maintains Marshall.

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