There's a previous idea for magnetic coins [link] but that doesn't specify the orientation of the
magnetic field and does specify that the coins have discrete magnets embedded in their centers.
This idea differs by saying that the coins are just made of a magnetic metal (as all current Canadian
coins already are) that is magnetized at the mint and remagnetized whenever the coins go through
a bank or maybe even a vending machine.
It also differs in specifying that the coins are magnetized radially, rather than axially, so that rather
than e.g. the obverse being north and the reverse being south (axial magnetization), they're
magnetized across the width of the circle. But even that's not all: it's not just one north and one
south pole, but alternating N–S–N–S across the width, four poles in total.
This means that the coins can be stacked directly on top of each other, which is convenient in
counting and rolling but not in pocket carry, and can also be stacked offset to form a sort of flattish
pyramidish clump, which is convenient for pocket carry. You can convert from one to the other with
a bit of sliding and rearranging.
I'm not entirely sure how well this would work with coins of different sizes—maybe they'd just have
to have the same pitch of north and south poles, or maybe they can accommodate enough of a
difference in pitch that they can all have the same number of poles across their widths.
n/a [2019-03-11]