STORY:
Millennium Tune-up For The Toonie

An Inuit drummer has replaced Canada's noble polar bear, the toonie for a couple of years. The Nunavut 1999 millennium coin, celebrating Canada's newest territory, is the latest coin from the Royal Canadian Mint to ring in 2000.

Inuit artist Germaine Arnaktauyok gets the credit for designing the coin that features an Inuit man performing a drum dance. The map of Nunavut is outlined on the drum around a kudliq, a traditional stone lamp symbolizing warmth and hope.

About 10 million of the new $2 coins will be produced for general circulation until the end of 1999. The Nunavut design will be replaced in 2000.

Toonies with the original polar bear design are out of production until 2001. About 400 million of them have been circulated since 1996. Each new toonie, with an aluminum bronze core and outer nickel ring, costs 16 cents to make and distribute.

Source: Canadian Press

DATE: 5/28/99

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