News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By LeRae Haynes

Canada has now officially launched a ‘new’ money program: a bank note series printed on a smooth, durable film instead of ‘paper.’ Secure, durable and innovative, these Polymer bills mark a shift away from paper bank notes and are a first for Canadian currency.

The new bills are designed to make it more difficult for counterfeiters, and easier for businesses to recognize ‘a fake’ when it comes across their counter.

“Key information packages for local businesses have arrived this morning,” said RCMP Safer Communities Coordinator Dave Dickson. “The $100 bills are expected any day at financial institutions in Williams Lake and the $50 bills will come early in 2012.”

As the transition to polymer notes begins, local businesses are reminded that they will need to remain vigilant. The new notes will present significant challengers for counterfeiters, but polymer and paper notes will both be in circulation for several years. 

Since counterfeiters tend to take the easy road by targeting bank notes with security features that are easier to fake, ‘paper’ money may well be their focus for some time.

There are other benefits to the new money, including innovative security features specifically designed for the polymer material. Polymer bank notes will be recycled when they become too damaged or worn for public use. They will last at least 2.5 times longer than the current cotton paper notes. This will reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing and transporting polymer bank notes over the life of the series, compared with the impact of notes printed on cotton paper.

The process has begun with the $50 and $100 bills, and all of the other denominations will be printed on polymer by the end of 2013, starting with the $20 note and followed by the $10 and $5 notes.

The polymer bills feel different from paper bills---it is stated they may feel slippery at first, but that feeling should wear off as the bills are used.

“They feel a bit like a strip of 35mm film and are quite rigid compared to paper bills,” Dave Dickson said. “You can’t really fold them or bend them.”

He said that counterfeit money represents a risk to local businesses and that counterfeit bills used recently in Williams Lake were traced to Vancouver Island. “It’s important for our local businesses to be as informed as possible,” he stated.    

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