I am a fan of vintage films. Spare me the jokes that the reason why I like old movies is because I am an old man. That may be so but I have always been endeared to the old times, the old days and the romance of days gone by. The vast majority of old films are American so I am inundated with language and terms that are different from the way we talk here in Canada.
Take money, for instance. Sometimes in old movies if an American has a couple of dollars, he or she might refer to that as “a couple of Washingtons”. When referring to a five-dollar bill, they may say a “Lincoln”. Same thing for a hundred or a “Benjamin Franklin” and so on.
We don’t do that in Canada. Which made me think about the people who are depicted on our currency bills. Just for fun I quizzed some folks to see if anyone could name all of the people on our paper money. Nobody except one person in my family, who used to work in a bank, was able to name every person on our paper money. I found that most interesting.
We only have the five, the 10, the 20, the 50 and the 100-dollar bill in circulation, yet very few people can name the people depicted on them. Try it. Don’t look, just see if you can do it. Based on my unscientific survey, I bet you can’t.
To cut to the chase: the five is Wilfred Laurier, the 10 is John A. Macdonald, the 20 is the Queen, the 50 is William Lyon Mackenzie King and the 100 is Robert Borden. It is worth noting that all people on Canadian banknotes are men and former prime ministers except for Her Majesty on the 20 and on our coins. There is a movement afoot to replace one of the men with a woman.
I know who is on our money but the reason I know is not because I am any smarter than the people I have quizzed. I think it’s partly because I was not born in this country so like most immigrants, I have a natural fascination with its history. It’s also because I had so little of it when I was young. I think mostly it is because I am an old man and back in the old days we were more intimate with our money and what was on it.
The plastic cards people carry are used for so many things these days that many people don’t carry money in their pockets anymore. My children and my grandchildren understand more about money transactions on the Internet than I will ever know. I can’t even remember the security codes for my credit cards; let alone how to buy things with them. But hey, I still know who’s on my money and I know who William Lyon Mackenzie King is.
I remember Grade Two and learning about the Canadian dime. I learned back then how important the depiction of the Bluenose schooner on that coin was to our country. I heard the passion in the teacher’s voice, speaking about this great sailboat from Nova Scotia, a boat that actually worked as a fishing vessel. How it took time off work to win big races on the ocean against formidable boats from America and other countries that were built just for racing. Those other boats didn’t have to work like our little Bluenose, yet our boat beat them all. How proud we were back then to hear that story at school. I understand to this day why that wonderful little boat is on our dime.
I wish that everybody would learn not just who is on our money but why they are there. Who the people are, why the animals were chosen and what the scenes on the back of our paper money really mean to us. It is important. Nobody has to be an expert on money and tell people that the moose on our 25 cent piece is not a moose but actually a caribou, but we should know a little more about our money and a lot more about our country.
But hey, what do I know? I’m just an old man who watches old movies.
Heino Molls has been the Publisher of REM, Real Estate Magazine (formerly Real Estate Marketing), since 1989. Previous to REM, he worked as an executive at the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), and at the Toronto Star. Contact Heino by email or call 416-425-3504 x2.
