By Vittorio Hernandez

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The Bank of Canada will issue, in November, new $50 and $100 bills made of polymers. The bank notes would be smooth as plastic and have a see-through window to prevent counterfeiting.

The bills will be phased in over several years and is expected to last 2.5 to 4 times longer than the current cotton banknotes in circulation.

The new notes would not fray or curl at the corners, which would result in about 40 percent less jams in automated teller machines and bill counting devices.

The issuance of polymer money would also mean less printing expense for the Canadian central bank because it would mean the agency would have to print the currency less often.

The Bank of Canada will retain the same distinct dominant color for each denomination as the current banknotes, but it will change the themes and security features.

The beige-colored new $100 bill will celebrate Canada's contribution to medical innovation by having the illustration of a woman peering into a microscope, which symbolizes the country's breakthrough on diabetes treatment, DNA mapping and cardiovascular health.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday at the ceremony to launch the new banknotes that new $50 bills will be available at ATMs by March 2012 and other denominations will be released gradually until the end of 2013.

Carney said the change in the bills seeks to foil money forgery, which had been on the rise in Canada since 2001. He disclosed that by 2004, there were 470 fake banknotes detected for even one million bills in circulation.

The Bank of Canada, which was established in 1935, issues 10 denominations of banknotes in $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $25, $50, $100, $500 and $1,000.

 

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World - Canada to Issue New $50 And $100 Plastic Bills In November | Global Viewpoint