Spot the difference: Can you tell which toonie is fake?
How well do you know what a real Canadian toonie looks like?
That’s the question the Ontario Provincial Police West Region asked when they posted a photo of a counterfeit toonie next to a real one on Monday, testing if folks could spot the fake.
“Spot the difference! A member of the public called #BrantOPP to advise them of counterfeit toonies, and now it’s your turn to spot the fake!” the police department wrote.
Spot the difference! A member of the public called #BrantOPP to advise them of counterfeit toonies, and now it's your turn to spot the fake! Can you tell which toonie is counterfeit? Stay informed and protect yourself from fraud! #FraudPreventionMonth^jb pic.twitter.com/L8EXHwU85F
— OPP West Region (@OPP_WR) March 11, 2024
The toonie on the left shows a polar bear with slightly less detailing than the one on the right.
The heads side of the coin on the left also includes a slightly smaller image of Queen Elizabeth II wearing a crown. Its lettering also seems closer together than the toonie on the right.
The post received several replies with social media users taking their guesses at which coin was the fake.
Many folks guessed that the coin on the right was not authentic.
Top right, Bottom right
— chris sierzputowski 🇨🇦 (@CskiChris) March 11, 2024
The two on the right
— Tracey Tackaberry (@tlm24girl) March 12, 2024
Right one
— marsha Wiggins (@Lmlfml3) March 12, 2024
One commenter joked that the toonie on the right looked suspicious because the “polar bear looks weird and Danny DeVito was never our Queen.”
I’m guessing the right side, because the polar bear looks weird, and Danny DeVito was never our queen.
— Arpad Csorba (@arpad_csorba) March 11, 2024
Another person also noted that the polar bear on the right looked suspicious because it looked like it had “hooves instead of paws.”
The polar bear on the right has hooves instead of paws
— Stanley ☼𓃬 (@Mr_Kubrick) March 12, 2024
So which toonie is the fake coin?
The OPP didn’t provide an answer, but the clues are in the polar bear’s paws.
According to BWJM.ca — a website that documents counterfeit toonies — a common indicator of a fake toonie is the “camel toe” on the polar bear.
OPP/ X
“The counterfeit coins which would soon become known as “Camel Toe Toonies” were introduced to the world via Reddit and the Coin Community Forum on July 8, 2020,” notes the website.
BWJM.ca/Screenshot
“A coin collector in the Greater Toronto Area posted that they had been finding high-quality counterfeit toonies on and off since March of that year.”
The website added that the camel toe toonies are the “second major series of counterfeit toonies since 1996.”
In an email to Daily Hive, an OPP spokesperson confirmed that the toonie on the left was the real coin.
RCMP previously warned Canadians back in 2022 that these fake toonies may be in circulation and the coins originally came from China.