To many, the loonie is considered to be as quintessentially Canadian as hockey, but new changes in the production of the coin have revealed it may not be as Canadian as many people think.

For the past two years, the raw materials, or blanks of the coin have been produced by the largest North American producer of zinc-based product: Jarden Zinc, an American company based in Tennessee.

"I had no idea they were being produced in the United States," Bret Evans of the Canadian Coin News told CTV. "I thought they were being produced in Winnipeg for the past ten years, so this came as a complete shock to me."

The American company began to produce the loonie when the Royal Canadian Mint was unable to find a supplier in Canada. Now, the Royal Canadian Mint has decided to move the production of the coin to its Winnipeg plant.

But Jarden Zinc, which produced 39 million blanks of the Canadian coin last year, holds the patent. As a result, for the Royal Canadian Mint to produce the coin, the manufacturing process will have to change.

The weight and colour of the coin specifications will be maintained, however the metal used in the manufacturing of the coin will change from bronze to brass. Evans says the general public will probably not notice the difference.

"They'll probably come pretty close in the colour match," Evans told CTV. "But you can bet collectors will be lining the new ones up with the old ones right away to see if there's any visual difference in terms of the colours."

While there may not be any recognizable issues with the new coins from a cosmetic standpoint, this may not be the case when the coins are actually used. Vending machines electronically read the metal content in coins to validate their value. The Royal Canadian Mint has conducted its own testing and believes there will be minimal impact to vending machines. However, the vending machine industry is concerned.

"I'm not sure how rigorous of testing they do at the Mint...compared with what the actual manufacturers of the product are capable of," Darren Nickle of Can-West Vending told CTV.

If there are any issues with the coin compatibility with vending machines, there will be a significant cost to vending machine operators.

"I'm rather shocked actually that they would have this introduction without any input from the Canadian Automatic merchandising association...or any input with the manufacturers of the coin mechanisms," Nickle said.

The Royal Canadian Mint has produced coins and blanks for over 60 countries in the past 25 years. These countries include New Zealand, Thailand and the Dominican Republic.

The new Canadian loonie will be manufactured alongside other Canadian coins and appear in the circulation later this year.

With a report from CTV's Graham Richardson in Ottawa