Canada using hard-to-forge plastic for $100 bill
Baku, Novemver 17 (AZERTAC). Canada released a new C$100 bill made of plastic on Monday, its first step in replacing an entire series of banknotes to thwart counterfeiters and persuade retailers it`s safe to accept big bills, according to Reuters.
The brown polymer note, identical in size and color to the existing paper C$100 note, is made with the same plastic used by some 32 other countries. But Canada is the first to add a metallic hologram that is especially difficult to fake.
The release of the plastic C$100 note comes just eight years after the Bank of Canada released a new series of paper notes that, while an improvement over previous versions, were still too easy to counterfeit.
"Although 99 percent of retailers now accept $100 notes, the perception persists that these notes are `difficult to spend.`"
The new polymer bill has a large transparent window from the top to the bottom of the note - the largest such window in modern banknote design - and a holographic image visible from both sides of the bill.
Plastic notes, nearly impervious to liquids, stains, tearing or wear-and-tear, were pioneered by the Reserve Bank of Australia in 1988. Blank sheets of the polymer will be made by a unit of the Australia central bank and shipped to Canada, where two Ottawa-based companies will print the notes.
The C$100 note features a portrait of Sir Robert Borden, Canada`s prime minister from 1911-1920, on the front, and images of Canadian contributions to medicine on the back.
It will save an estimated C$200 million over the assumed eight-year life of the series because the bills will last about 2.5 times longer than paper banknotes, the bank said.
The new C$50 note will be released in March 2012, the C$20 note -- the most common denomination -- late next year, and the C$10 and C$5 notes in 2013. The bank said paper bills will remain in circulation for years.
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