Canada’s gradual shift to slick, cleaner, synthetic banknotes won’t just mean your money can stand more wear, will not tear and, for the first time, will be recycled into other products instead of destroyed.
The Bank of Canada and the RCMP hope that once the polymer-based notes are in circulation – starting in November with the $100 bill – they’ll also be all but impossible to fake.
Canada has already made strides in limiting counterfeiters’ ability to reproduce Canadian money, after an alarming surge earlier this decade, Bank of Canada and RCMP data show. But despite the growing impression that we’ve become a cashless society, Ottawa says half of all financial transactions in Canada still involve cash, which means faith in banknotes’ authenticity still makes the economy go ’round.
Full story: Canada’s new plastic banknotes will be nearly impossible to fake – Globe and Mail