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Polymer Notes: New Canada $50, $100 Bills Go Plastic


First Posted: 06/20/11 12:03 PM ET Updated: 08/20/11 06:12 AM ET

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THE CANADIAN PRESS -- OTTAWA - Get ready to have a little more plastic in your wallet.

Canada is switching to polymer bank notes to replace paper-cotton bills that wear and tear more easily.

The first bills to go plastic will be the $50 and $100 notes. Both were unveiled today by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and will feature updated portraits of former prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Robert Borden.

The Bank of Canada also said that it would be introducing polymer notes to replace the $20, $10 and $5 notes by 2013.

"The Bank's objective with every new series is to produce a bank note that Canadians can use with the highest confidence," said Governor Mark Carney. "The Bank is combining innovative technologies from around the world with Canadian ingenuity to create a unique series of bank notes that is more secure, economic and better for the environment."

The Conservative government announced in its 2010 budget that Canada would be switching to synthetic bills.

Polymer bank notes are more durable and harder to fake than paper money.

With files from the Huffington Post Canada

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THE CANADIAN PRESS -- OTTAWA - Get ready to have a little more plastic in your wallet. Canada is switching to polymer bank notes to replace paper-cotton bills that wear and tear more easily. The...
THE CANADIAN PRESS -- OTTAWA - Get ready to have a little more plastic in your wallet. Canada is switching to polymer bank notes to replace paper-cotton bills that wear and tear more easily. The...
THE CANADIAN PRESS -- OTTAWA - Get ready to have a little more plastic in your wallet. Canada is switching to polymer bank notes to replace paper-cotton bills that wear and tear more easily. The...
THE CANADIAN PRESS -- OTTAWA - Get ready to have a little more plastic in your wallet. Canada is switching to polymer bank notes to replace paper-cotton bills that wear and tear more easily. The...
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optimist7
2887 Fans
01:38 PM on 06/21/2011
My guess is that it has to do with some sort of deal with the corporation that makes the polymer, in the same way that the government's backing of wind power has more to do with the corporations installing the industrial wind farms than green energy.
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Trueman832
35 Fans
02:03 PM on 06/20/2011
Of course, it won't be known as "Canadian currency"... it'll be "Harper currency"... "Harbucks" for short.
And it won't be Robert Borden on the $100, it'll be Harper. It won't be King on the $50, it'll be.. you guessed it.. Harper.
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chinchilla
They say I need to write something here.
105 Fans
01:29 PM on 06/20/2011
The first bills to go plastic will be the $50 and $100 notes.

The Conservative government announced in its 2010 budget that Canada would be switching to synthetic bills.

==========================

The choice of bills to become polymar first would make sense to a Conservative government. Those are the denominations handed around so frequently by their lobbyist friends and supporters.

The regular Canadians? Me and my friends don't really carry $50 and $100 bills around on a regular basis.
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alabamaman64
23 Fans
02:01 PM on 06/20/2011
It actually has more to do with what denominations are most likely to be counterfeited...but I get your point. How often do average Canadians (and Americans for that matter) walk around with $50 and $100 bills in their wallets? Can't remember the last time I had one.
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Exexecution
386 Fans
01:17 AM on 06/21/2011
They say the 20 is the most popular to counterfeit by far. What's odd is that counterfeiting is down, way down in Canada. The motivation behind this is suspicious for that reason.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Steve Lives
The Venus Project ... look it up
294 Fans
11:52 AM on 06/20/2011
LOL They are going to make it harder to fake their fake money.
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maxben
189 Fans
01:16 PM on 06/20/2011
"Fake money"?
Are you stupid?
You sound like an American tea partier with their crusade against fiat currency.....
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Steve Lives
The Venus Project ... look it up
294 Fans
02:24 PM on 06/20/2011
How do they make money max? Where does it get its "value" from? Do you have any understanding of how fractional reserve banking works?
I am not a tea bagger. I would rather just get rid of the entire concept of money, which we can do. The tea baggers libertarian ideology is offensive to me.
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alabamaman64
23 Fans
01:58 PM on 06/20/2011
There's nothing fake about Canadian money. It spends quite well and purchases all the same goods and services American money does. And, according to current exchange rates, $1 US is only worth 98 cents Canadian...a Canadian dollar will buy more than a US dollar. Stop being an idiot...you make other Americans look bad.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Steve Lives
The Venus Project ... look it up
294 Fans
02:30 PM on 06/20/2011
Money is like religion. You gotta believe. I don't. And I'm not an American. I'm Canadian. Money once had a purpose and function, limited as it was. It no longer does really. But its hard to tell someone that, who has never known, or even thought of something different.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
rotary
canucklehead
25 Fans
 
11:52 AM on 06/20/2011
And finally, we catch up with Australia in 1988!

Good decision though. We'll eventually morph into a purely debit/credit
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Steve Lives
The Venus Project ... look it up
294 Fans
02:32 PM on 06/20/2011
And what a sad day that will be.
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WestQuake
33 Fans
06:44 PM on 06/20/2011
Based on my experience with plastic money in Australia, it "springs" out of your wallet, probably leading to even more spending. It also makes it difficult for the Bay Street types to light their cigars with $100 bills (they'll find a way). King Steve portrait with full regalia or is he saving that for his velvet painting wing of the National Gallery?
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