Montreal Gazette
Manitoba Couple Learns all that Glitters Probably is Gold
This was a great article, let down by a bit bit of sloppy and inaccurate reporting. It contained just about everything a local newspaper could wish for in a story:

• Local woman buys coffee with husband's $700 gold coin.
• Coffee shop gives it straight out in change.
• Customer brings coin back complaining, and thinks he has been cheated.
• Coffee shop holds coins waiting for its rightful owner to claim it.
• Humour. The old joke about would the customer who dropped a $100 bill please form an orderly queue at the customer service desk.
• Happy ending.

Here is the Article:

Manitoba couple learns all that glitters probably is gold
By Geoff Kirbyson, Winnipeg Free Press October 23, 2010
WINNIPEG — Kristine Friesen may have bought the most expensive cup of coffee of all time.
The Winnipeg resident and her husband thought nothing of their visit to a Tim Hortons location on Wednesday. She ordered tea and a bagel while Harry ordered coffee.
The bill came to about $3, so Kristine reached into her purse, pulled out a toonie and a loonie and they sat down to enjoy their beverages.
Kristine went to bed early that night but when she got up the next morning, she found out Harry had been up late looking high and low for a gold coin he had left with his change on the coffee table the day before.
After retracing their steps, she realized with some horror that she had likely used the $100 gold coin at Tim Hortons.
"I thought the loonie looked kind of shiny but I didn't really think about it. It stuck in my mind through," she said.
The wayward coin nearly made it into general circulation as change for a subsequent customer but an alert cashier noticed it and brought it back to Greg Mikolajek, owner of the store.
"She said, 'I think I got ripped off,'" he said.
Mikolajek, a novice coin collector, regularly rounds up the non-Canadian money the shop brings in and buys it for himself. He uses the U.S. change on trips south of the border and he puts coins from other countries, such as Mexico, Cuba or even Europe, in a box.
At first, he thought the coin was a special edition loonie, like the one celebrating the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. On closer inspection, he knew that couldn't be the case because the coin was minted in 1976. The Royal Canadian Mint didn't start producing loonies until 1987.
"It's the exact same size of a loonie. You'd never know the difference, it's just a little heavier," he said.
Mikolajek immediately thought about getting it back into the hands of the owner but realized that would be impossible unless somebody came forward on their own.
"If I said we have a lost $100 coin, we'd have 3,000 people here to collect it," he said.
Abe Nuss, manager of A.B. Coins & Collectables, said from the description of the coin, he believes it's worth about $350. He said the Mint produced two gold $100 coins in 1976, a 14-ounce version that's about the size of a loonie and a 22-ounce piece that's a little bigger and thicker than a nickel. The latter is worth about $700. The Mint continues to make the $100-gold coin to this day, although the gold content is lower than it used to be, he said.
On Thursday, one of Mikolajek's employees came into the back of the store and asked if anybody had turned in a $100-coin. Mikolajek went to the front counter and found Harry Friesen brandishing a small protective case where the front plastic piece was compressed with an outline of a coin.
"It was the Cinderella story, the slipper fit," Mikolajek said. "I told him I had it at home but if he came back (Friday) he'd be a very happy guy."
Harry was ecstatic at the news and happy to have the coin back. He doesn't want to take the chance of it getting mixed up with regular change again so he's going to put in a safety deposit box.
But the gold coin wasn't the only legal tender to change hands on Friday.
"I said to Harry, 'don't forget, you still owe them a loonie," Kristine said.

Heavy Metal! We guess the expert correctly told the journalist that there are two version of this coin:

• A 22ct (kt / karat / carat = 91.66% pure gold) gold version, weighing 16.9655 grams and contains .5000 troy ounces of fine gold.
• A 14 carat (karat or kt) version i.e. 14/24ths part gold = 58.33% pure gold, weighing 13.3375 grams, which contains .2500 troy ounces of fine gold.

Pay Attention! Unfortunately, the journalist trashed and rehashed this handy piece of information, and changed it to a 14 ounce version, and a 22 ounce version. Imagine trying to carry a pocketful or a handbagful of those around!

How Much? We also wondered about the valuation placed on the coin $350. Sure it's difficult to be exact until you know exactly which coin, but with gold bullion currently trading at around Can $1,360 per troy ounce, the intrinsic gold content of the coin is going to be Can $680 for the 22kt version, and Can $340 for the 14kt version.

1976 Canadian Gold Proof $100 Montreal Olympic Games Commemorative Coin