Canada Starting to Switch Over to Plastic Currency

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Everyone is familiar with plastic money, otherwise known as a credit card, but tomorrow, Canada will begin to give it a new meaning: $100 bills. Starting tomorrow, Canada will begin to replace its present paper money with more durable and security controlled polymer bills over a period of several years.
 
MajorDomo said:
Everyone is familiar with plastic money, otherwise known as a credit card, but tomorrow, Canada will begin to give it a new meaning: $100 bills. Starting tomorrow, Canada will begin to replace its present paper money with more durable and security controlled polymer bills over a period of several years.
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Paper money had never been made of money. It's cotton.
 
I already have one of these. We're supposed to be getting them in $50 and $20 denominations later on.
 
Interesting. Should be cool to see that. I wonder if they'll work better in change machines as well.

I wonder what ever happened to the $5 coin, I recall hearing talks about it but it never happened. I think it could make sense.
 
Wow, I thought most countries would already have polymer banknotes introduced. I guess it makes it a lot easier for economically smaller country. Here in NZ we have had polymer banknotes since 1999. Australia was the first country to introduce them back in 1996.
 
Here in Brunei we've been using polymer notes since... I don't know, the 80's?
 
I'm curious about folding them. Usually with plastic you fold it over and over and it gets weaker at the fold and rips or breaks.
 
mart20012 said:
I'm curious about folding them. Usually with plastic you fold it over and over and it gets weaker at the fold and rips or breaks.
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I can't remember the source but they spring back quite nicely (to their original shape). Not sure about long-term but yea.
 
Yeah polymer bank notes are great.
They have a small see through 'window' on them as well.
Very difficult to forge.

They are more durable and can go through the laundry fine.
I also find it easier to feed into vending machines etc (they seem to accept them more)
However they do eventually tear.

They do crease if you scrunch them up or squash them in your wallet. But they flatten out again fine. Pretty much just like a normal bank note.

All of our aussie notes are different colours and different sizes. Makes it very easy to identify.
Different sizes also makes it easier for blind people.
The window on them are distinct for each note also making it easy for blind people as they can feel for it.
 
I would imagine that eventually physical currency will be outlawed. Credit cards, working through a system similar to something like Bitcoin will probably eventually come into practice. The government will claim that terrorists are using physical currency to buy illegal items on the black market and that the physical currency is not trackable which makes its a security risk. So they will create a system similar to Bitcoin where every transaction can be tracked and verified and the wealth of all the individual people in the system will be known at any point in time, thus making it easier for the government to tax you accuractly. If are an enemy of the state the government will lock you out of the currency system. Using or creating non government issued currency will be illegal.

But I could be completely wrong.
 
US currency looks so boring and dated compared to anyone else's.
 
westrock2000 said:
I would imagine that eventually physical currency will be outlawed. Credit cards, working through a system similar to something like Bitcoin will probably eventually come into practice. The government will claim that terrorists are using physical currency to buy illegal items on the black market and that the physical currency is not trackable which makes its a security risk. So they will create a system similar to Bitcoin where every transaction can be tracked and verified and the wealth of all the individual people in the system will be known at any point in time, thus making it easier for the government to tax you accuractly. If are an enemy of the state the government will lock you out of the currency system. Using or creating non government issued currency will be illegal.

But I could be completely wrong.
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That is my fear, that they just stop making physical money. It's legal tender so I doubt they could outlaw it, but it would simply get phased out. Being forced to use debit would suck. I don't want to have to pay a $1.50 service charge when I need a $0.10 screw at Canadian Tire, or a $2 coffee at Tim's. It's just not worth using debit for small purchases.

Now if they got rid of service charges, it would be ok. As much as it sucks to get tracked by the government, no matter where you turn there is one way or the other that they track us, so as much as it sucks, we just have to live with it. I suppose if you don't draw any special attention you just blend in with the millions of other people. Just don't buy flying lessons, guns, knives, and google search bomb recipes all in one day. Try to at least spread it out a little, you know? :D
 
bucket said:
US currency looks so boring and dated compared to anyone else's.
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It's actually partly why we don't change it drastically even though we know certain things like inserting plastics makes it harder to counterfeit on a small level. Because the government is mildly concerned about perceptions and drastic changes to the appearance of the greenback. Although with the way it looks now with current bills XD
 
Red Squirrel said:
That is my fear, that they just stop making physical money. It's legal tender so I doubt they could outlaw it, but it would simply get phased out. Being forced to use debit would suck. I don't want to have to pay a $1.50 service charge when I need a $0.10 screw at Canadian Tire, or a $2 coffee at Tim's. It's just not worth using debit for small purchases.

Now if they got rid of service charges, it would be ok. As much as it sucks to get tracked by the government, no matter where you turn there is one way or the other that they track us, so as much as it sucks, we just have to live with it. I suppose if you don't draw any special attention you just blend in with the millions of other people. Just don't buy flying lessons, guns, knives, and google search bomb recipes all in one day. Try to at least spread it out a little, you know? :D
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Out of curiosity, how may people here still use cash only for day to day purchases? I've been finding myself using debit or credit more often, just for the sake of not having to deal with mountains of loose change.

I sincerely hope cash is never phased out. Realistically we don't have the infrastructure to do away with it yet, but I could see the government pushing for this once it is feasible.

I think I will try go a month using only cash and see how it goes.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I wonder what ever happened to the $5 coin, I recall hearing talks about it but it never happened. I think it could make sense.
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$5 coins will get introduced once inflation hits a point where a $5 coin is the equivalent of our loonie/toonie today. Or... if a toonie won't cover a medium double double from Timmi's.

We're not there yet :)
 
Spiritual Machine said:
Out of curiosity, how may people here still use cash only for day to day purchases? I've been finding myself using debit or credit more often, just for the sake of not having to deal with mountains of loose change.

I sincerely hope cash is never phased out. Realistically we don't have the infrastructure to do away with it yet, but I could see the government pushing for this once it is feasible.

I think I will try go a month using only cash and see how it goes.
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Using credit for everything seems like a cool and fast idea...until you get stuck in line behind the 70-year-old trying to remember what their code is and how to work "the machine" when they do...
 
Spiritual Machine said:
Out of curiosity, how may people here still use cash only for day to day purchases? I've been finding myself using debit or credit more often, just for the sake of not having to deal with mountains of loose change.

I sincerely hope cash is never phased out. Realistically we don't have the infrastructure to do away with it yet, but I could see the government pushing for this once it is feasible.

I think I will try go a month using only cash and see how it goes.
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I use credit card for everything I possibly can. The main reason is that credit cards give rewards back. For me I use a cash back card, so this really adds up over time. If I were to use cash, I'd just be losing out on that for no real reason.
 
Aix. said:
Using credit for everything seems like a cool and fast idea...until you get stuck in line behind the 70-year-old trying to remember what their code is and how to work "the machine" when they do...
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Totally...I still see a lot of older folk writing checks for like $10 at the grocery store. :rolleyes:

TBH though, I rarely ever use cash. I would say that 99,9% of places I've been don't charge debit/credit fees, either (I've actually heard it's illegal to do so here in WA, but that could be wrong) so using a card is not an issue.
 
Hmmm... interesting, thanks for the heads up. Our room mates always pays me in cash so I end up with 3-4 $100 bills everytime and probably woulda been a bit confused when she tries to hand me these instead of the paper versions lol

Slowly getting closer to chips in our hands lol
 
Ragenrok said:
Hmmm... interesting, thanks for the heads up. Our room mates always pays me in cash so I end up with 3-4 $100 bills everytime and probably woulda been a bit confused when she tries to hand me these instead of the paper versions lol

Slowly getting closer to chips in our hands lol
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You mean you didn't already get yours? Last time I went to the Ministry of Transportation, they totally gave me one of those Total Recall bulbous things up the nose.
 
If you can make a gun out of it, paper money should be a breeze.
 
Oh big whoop. long overdue. here in australia we've had polymer money for like 20 years. hence why our money isn't the highest counterfeited money in the world like the usa.
 
I think that taking all of the valuable minerals out of money is a bad idea. When the world economy crashes, we're going to be left with a bunch of useless plastic and paper instead of potentially useful copper, nickel, silver, gold, and etc.
 
simonizor said:
I think that taking all of the valuable minerals out of money is a bad idea. When the world economy crashes, we're going to be left with a bunch of useless plastic and paper instead of potentially useful copper, nickel, silver, gold, and etc.
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The problem with that is as the prices of the minerals increased, the coins were worth more as scrap than they were as legal tender.
 
gaspah said:
Oh big whoop. long overdue. here in australia we've had polymer money for like 20 years. hence why our money isn't the highest counterfeited money in the world like the usa.
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Your missing the point....who the hell wants to counterfeit Australian currency? :p
 
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