Those bills may look pretty foreign right now, but they won’t starting next month. Yes, the Bank of Canada will be releasing $5 and $10 polymer notes on the 7th, which is the last remaining implementation. If you read my post on cashier observations from last week, you know I don’t treat those polymer bills kindly. Sometimes I admit I do shove those bills in my till just however because they won’t fold. (Ugh.)
Aside from that occupational annoyance, there are a bunch of things about them that caught me by surprise. These are everyday things, yes?
1) “Plastic bills” can be ripped – it’s proven, but hopefully it’s rare
Yes, yes, these bills are tear-resistant, and not tear-proof, but a tear is a tear. Despite plenty of promotions that state that these bills cannot be ripped as opposed to their paper counterparts, they do, just rarely. I actually tore out the bottom serial number the time I ripped it, so it was a relief that the torn part was still there for me to tape it (phew, didn’t have to take any chances of voiding a bill!). The bottom line is to treat them nicely and don’t harshly shove them into tills like me. 🙂
2) Yikes! Is this melty?
I’ve heard of stories where these bills have melted and then stuck together, and this picture takes the whole thing a step further. I mean, plastic does have an “easy-to-melt” connotation to it, but hopefully this doesn’t happen in large-scale situations.
3) Does it smell like maple syrup?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_u1cIRwIw
I don’t know, I just smell MythBusters, and a hint of “inside gossip” that only Canadians will figure out. I’m dead sure this theory won’t make sense in other countries, just ours.
4) Design debates
Aside from the new material, debates emerged from the design of these bills as well. When the $20 bills were released, there were concerns that the maple window design depicted a non-Canadian variant. A previous draft of the $100 design was reported to have had an woman of Asian descent depicted on the backside before it was changed. The new $5 and $10 bills have received their share of scrutiny as well; the image of the International Space Station on the $5 was seen as archetypal and the depiction of the railway on the $10 revealed varied connotations. In a deeper scope, the controversies raised by these new designs reflect different interpretations of our identity today. Personally, I don’t see a problem will all of these issues – yet that doesn’t mean others aren’t entitled to have their opinions. What’s your say?
In a few weeks, our wallets will be full of these new sets of bills. I guess it’s good to have some sense of interesting facts associated with them, hey? 😀
