Voyageur dollar Voyageur dollar The Voyageur Dollar was a coin of Canada struck for circulation from 1935 through 1986. Until 1968, the coin was composed of 80% silver. A smaller, nickel version for general circulation was struck from 1968 through 1986. In 1987, the coin was replaced by the loonie. However, like all of Canada's discontinued coins, the voyageur dollar coins remain legal tender. In 1911, after lengthy debate, the first Canadian silver dollar was struck. Only two remain, one in a museum, the other in private hands, and recently auctioned for $1.4 million. In 1935, a commemorative silver dollar was struck
Hull, Quebec was very much the preserve of the "draveurs", people who would use the river to transport logs from lumber camps until they arrived downriver. (The Gatineau River flows south into the Ottawa River which flows east to the St Lawrence River near Montreal.) The log-filled Ottawa River, as viewed from Hull, appeared on the back of the Canadian one-dollar bill until it was replaced by a dollar coin (the "loonie") in 1987, and the very last of the dwindling activity of the draveurs on these rivers ended a few years later. Ottawa was founded later, as the terminus of the