How you can make a trade for the Indigenous Peoples Day commemorative toonie

The Royal Canadian Mint is hosting an event this weekend to help Winnipeggers beef up their coin collections.

From Thursday to Sunday, the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg is hosting a coin exchange where people will get the chance to add the National Indigenous Peoples Day commemorative toonie to their collections.

During this event, Winnipeggers can bring $10 and they will get five of the new toonies that went into circulation last month.

“We love coin exchanges here at the Mint, so this is the first one for 2023,” said Tracey Heminger, tours and retail operations manager at the Royal Canadian Mint.

“We have a couple more planned, a couple surprises this year, but we’re excited to have started with the Indigenous Peoples Day.”

The coin, which was unveiled earlier in the summer, includes the work of three Indigenous artists, Megan Currie, Myrna Pokiak and Jennine Krauchi. The toonie bring together the artists’ personal visions of their own cultures and honours the heritage of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis people living in Canada.

“This is important so that Canadians can celebrate and honour Canadian history and Canada today through different means and this is one way through currency,” said Heminger.

The coin exchange runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is cash only, and any Canadian circulation coin or banknote denomination is acceptable.