Better carry some old coins if you're planning on parking downtown these days.

While the Canadian Mint is issuing new, lighter coins in its next go-round of minting, the parking meters in the city centre aren't ready to handle them yet.

City community safety and enforcement manager Jon Wilson said Friday the mint is using steel instead of nickel in its new coins.

The change in metal makes the coins too light to be registered by the meters.

"It affects vending machines, parking meters, anything that accepts coins has to be reprogrammed now," he said.

The new coins are being put into use this month, so the City's 850 parking meters have to be reprogrammed at a cost of $3 per meter, or $2,550 in total.

The expense is coming out of the existing operating budget for parking, he said.

Recalibration involves a program being loaded into a handheld device that is used to 'talk' wirelessly to each meter. Wilson said that's being done over the next couple of weeks.

The meters read the size and weight of the coin to mete out the appropriate amount of time. Dimes, nickels and the no-longer-being-made pennies are not accepted.