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V14 2011 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 14, Number 26, June 26, 2011, Article 11

CANADA UNVEILS NEW POLYMER BANKNOTES

An E-Sylum reader forwarded this item with a video released by the Bank of Canada unveiling designs for the country's new polymer banknotes. -Editor

Canada's Polymer Banknotes

The Bank of Canada is rolling out new, plastic-based $100 bills, which will hit the country's wallets by November. In this frankly mesmerizing video, above, a narrator explains the bill's numerous security features, including a hidden circle of numbers that match the note's value. It can only be seen by holding up the "frosted maple leaf window" to a "single-point light source."

Gawker called it "currency erotica," joking that the "$100 bill bends seductively" in the video as the narrator's voice intones in the background.

But potential counterfeiters are presumably not laughing. The Globe and Mail says the bills "will be nearly impossible to fake." Between 2001 and 2004 a "rash of fraud" increased the number of counterfeit bills in Canada to 470 per million, causing some retailers to say they would not accept $100 bills. Half of all transactions in the country are still in cash, according the paper.

The Bank will be unveiling $50 and $20 polymer notes next year.

"The new bills will last at least two and a half times longer than cotton-based banknote paper, and after being removed from circulation, for the first time in Canada, they will be recycled into other products," the Bank's Governor mark Carney said, according to the Digital Journal. "Safer, cheaper, greener: these new banknotes are a 21st Century achievement in which all Canadians can take pride, and in which all Canadians can place their confidence."

To read the complete article, see: Canada unveils mesmerizing "polymer" money (news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110622/ts_yblog_thelookout/canada-unveils-mesmerizing-polymer-money)

Just last week we quoted an article about Andrea Firth, the "Scientist of the Bank of Canada" who undoubtedly had a hand in designing some of the anticounterfeiting measures employed on the new notes. But "nearly impossible to fake"? Time will tell, but anything man can make can be made by others as well. Counterfeiting is said to be the second-oldest profession, and I'm sure that the minute the new notes hit the street some people will get to work making counterfeits. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: THE SCIENTIST OF THE BANK OF CANADA www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n25a15.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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