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Last Canadian $1 bills roll off the presses in 1989

The Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa prints the last Canadian $1 bills on April 20, 1989 to make room for the dollar coin.

Paper dollar bills phased out to make way for the $1 coin introduced in 1987

The (paper) buck stops here

35 years ago
Duration 2:17
The last Canadian $1 bills roll off the presses in 1989 to make room for the dollar coin.

On April 20, 1989, the last $1 bills roll off the press at Ottawa's Canadian Bank Note Company.

Dollar bills will soon be pulled from circulation, leaving Canadians no choice but to embrace the loonie, the new $1 coin that began circulating in 1987.

For $50, sentimental Canadians can purchase an uncut sheet of 40 $1 bills as a souvenir.

But as reporter Deborah Lamb learns in this report forCBC'sThe National, it's pointless to hold on to a single bill in hopes that it will appreciate in value.

Hands holding a sheet of dollar bills
For $50, Canadians could buy a sheet of 40 $1 bills to keep for nostalgia. The printer sold $3 million in these sheets before the last one rolled off the press. But there was no point holding on to dollar bills except as a souvenir after they were phased out in 1989: so many of them were printed over the years, they had no value as collectors' items. (CBC/The National)

Until 1934, both the Government of Canada and chartered banks issued bank notes. When the Bank of Canada was formed that year, it took on sole responsibility for issuing and managing paper money.

The first $1 bill issued by the Bank of Canada in 1935 came in both English-only and French-only versions.

Otherwise they were identical, with an image of King George V on the front. Two years later, a new design was released with bilingual printing and an image of the new King George VI.

Canadian Bank Note employee Sandy MacNeil wears a T-shirt to mark the last day of printing paper dollar bills in 1989. (CBC/The National)

The next series of bills came out in 1954 with Queen Elizabeth on the front.

According to the Bank of Canada's bank notes website, these notes became known as the "Devil's Head" series because part of the Queen's hair resembled a demon's face. The bills were modified in 1956.

A stack of dollar bills.
The design on the $1 bill on top in this photo was first issued in 1974. Queen Elizabeth was on the front and the back featured Parliament Hill as seen from across a log-strewn Ottawa River. (CBC/The National)

The $1 coin was first minted in 1987 as a cost-saving measure (coins last much longer than bills).

As the last $1 bills were printed, the Globe and Mail said an estimated 300 million more were still in circulation in Canadians' purses, pockets and cash registers.

Introducing the loonie

37 years ago
Duration 2:01
Canada's shiny new one dollar coin has a cute nickname, and an early fan following.