Stumbled across this yesterday when in the process of picking up a new bike for my youngest. We have some pretty colourful money, legit tender. I'm constantly reminded by my American friends about how funny it is... we have funny money or Monopoly money - isn't that right, friends. :-)
A bit of background, for those not from up here. "CrappyTire" is the colloquialism for a store here called Canadian Tire. It's a hardware store that most of us love to hate and hate to love. They have a coupon system called Canadian Tire Money that started in 1958. When you shop there you get a percentage back on your purchase (0.4% now), in the form of Canadian Tire Money. Until recently, 2018, you could get the cold hard cash, in the form of bills. The bills are $0.5, $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00 (there were a bunch of other denominations.) Now it's all on an electronic loyalty card.
A 25 cent Canadian Tire note featuring Sandy McTire
Here's were the fun starts. Like most of us I had a wack of the bills in a drawer. The total of my stack (pictured above) is about $27 bucks. I'm sure I've been stacking them away for 20 years. Each trip back, stick them in the drawer. It turns out, if I have the right bills, they could actually be worth something.
Like many things in the collecting world imperfections are the key. As in this note with an offset serial number. A 10 cent note worth around $5.00 now - Canadian Dollars :-)
Just recently a guy walked into a Canadian Tire store and bought a canoe with a briefcase full of "CrappyTire" money. Hilariuos. He'll be a Canadian culture Meme for the foreseeable future.
Canadian Tire money is some serious coin. In 2014 the RCMP actually busted a counterfeit ring that was laundering around $10 million dollars in Canadian Tire money... Police became suspicious when a customer bought an item with $10 worth of Canadian Tire money - it would have taken a life time to save this up... imagine if I walked into the store with $27 bucks worth (20 years worth of saving). Swat team would have been called in (LOL - Okay that story is a bit of a lark.)
It did take me 20 years to save up the $27 bucks. Now I can't bring my self to use it nor can I toss it out. Anyone interested in some vintage Canadian Tire bills? I guess I'm now a Canadian Tire bill collector to go along with some of my silver coins.
mmm... I wonder...
"A 50-cent note issued in 1958 is now worth upwards of $1,500; this month, an anomalous $2 bill from 1989 went up for auction with a reserve price of $3,000." - Mcleans Magazine
There's a Canadian Tire Coupon Collectorâs Club with around 250 people across Canada that have been preserving Canadian Tire bills since 1990. If you want to know if you've kept a collectible check them out. I guess that stack of bills is going back into the drawer. Who knows, maybe in ten years they may be worth something.
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Tire_money
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-canoe-candian-tire-money-1.5193298
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2014/02/rcmp-bust-major-canadian-tire-money-counterfeit-laundering-operation/
https://www.macleans.ca/society/your-canadian-tire-money-might-be-priceless/
http://www.ctccc.ca