Slick, new plastic currency unveiled

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This article was published 15/11/2011 (5167 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Canada’s new plastic, see-through currency feels a lot like the celluloid film you used to load up into your old camera.

The smooth, stretchy, plastic polymer bills may be popular with the beach crowd because you can easily tuck the waterproof money into your bathing suit and take it out for a swim.

The Bank of Canada unveiled the first of the new generation of bills — the $100 one — on Monday.

The $50 bill is coming next March, and the rest of the bills will be in circulation by 2013.

Officials are singing its praises, saying the bill has a lot of security features that will make it a challenge to counterfeit.

But people interviewed by The Canadian Press expressed resistance to the change Monday and said they weren’t keen to begin carrying around the plastic money.

Several people who were interviewed said the new brown-coloured bill, with the face of former prime minister Robert Borden, looks fake.

And don’t expect them to go rushing into their local corner store waving around the newfangled currency. They say store owners won’t readily accept a $50 bill — let alone a $100 bill.

But Bank of Canada director Daniel Johnson predicts more people will start using the shiny new bill once they gain confidence in it and realize it’s more secure.

While the new money might look ultra-modern to Canadians, some other countries — Australia and New Zealand — have had polymer currency for well over a decade.

— The Canadian Press