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$100 bill due out November
By Bret Evans
More than a year after it was first announced, the Bank of Canada unveiled the first two notes in the new polymer bank-note series on June 20.
The new notes will be the same colour as the current Canadian Journey series, and have the same portraits on the face: Robert Borden on the $100; William Lyon Mackenzie King on the $50; Queen Elizabeth II on the $20; John A. Macdonald on the $10; and Wilfrid Laurier on the $5. The portraits will, however, be updated, and combined with a number of new elements.
The bank decided to use some elements to help members of the public quickly identify the notes, which are the same dimensions as the earlier series.
The theme for the series focuses on Canada's achievements at the frontiers of innovation.
Speaking at the unveiling, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty said, "these banknotes evoke the country's spirit of innovation, and their designs celebrate Canada's achievements at home, around the world and in space."
The first note to be issued is the $100, which will be released in November.
Focusing on innovations in the field of medicine, the back of the $100 note will have a portrait of a researcher and an insulin bottle.
The second note, to be issued in March, has the theme of arctic research. The back of the note will feature the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen. Above the vessel is a term in Inuktitut, which translates to Arctic.
The CCGS Amundsen was originally built in 1979 and named after British explorer John Franklin. After being declared surplus and decommissioned, an agreement was reached between a consortium of Canadian universities and research centres to fund it as a research vessel. After conversion to a research vessel, it was re-commissioned as CCGS Amundsen, named after Swedish explorer Roald. It is crewed by the Canadian Coast Guard, which uses it as an icebreaker in the winter months. The rest of the year it conducts research assignments.
The $20 note will also be issued in 2012 and will feature the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
The final two notes will be released in 2013. The $10 will depict the Canadian, the transcontinental passenger train and the $5 will feature Canadarm2 and Dextre to symbolize Canada's contribution to the international space program.
The themes were selected through a series of workshops and focus groups. Staff at Canadian Bank Note Company completed the final designs.
As expected, the notes are driven by anti-counterfeiting measures.
Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said, "the bank's objective is produce a banknote that Canadians can use in the highest confidence.
"The bank is combining innovative technologies from around the world with Canadian ingenuity to create a unique series of banknotes that is more secure, economic and better for the environment."
RCMP Commissioner William J.S. Elliot praised the new features.
"These new and technically innovative notes will go a long way to deter the threat of counterfeiting in coming years," he said.
The most obvious security features are the two transparent areas on each note. The large one runs almost completely from top to bottom and contains complex holographic features.
The face portrait appears at the top of the window, and an architectural detail from the Parliament Buildings is shown below. Both use metallic technology and light shifting technology. Between them is transparent text and small numbers. If the note is flipped, the details in the portrait and building remain constant from both sides.
According to Bank of Canada currency specialist Charles Spencer, author of a background report on the notes, the images and writing are contained on a strip of holographic foil, the first ever used on a polymer note.
The window has a Maple Leaf border, which crosses through the edge and into the transparent area.
The smaller transparent is in the shape of a Maple Leaf.
Inside that window is a greyed-out Maple Leaf. In the centre of that is a grey circle. If the user holds the note close to the eye and looks through the circle towards a single-point light source, a circle of numbers is revealed corresponding to the value of the note.
The note also incorporates raised, or intaglio, printing in a number of areas and extensive use of micro- and fine-line printing. Spencer's report said such printing can be done even sharper on polymer than on paper.
Spencer said the notes also have "innovative features designed to be 'seen' only by note-handling equipment." These images are laser-etched on the surface of the note during production.
Features designed to help the blind and partially sighted include large numbers on a contrasting background, codes for electronic readers, and a system of raised dots in a different pattern for each denomination.
According to a Bank of Canada background document, the popularity of electronic payment has not diminished the demand for paper money.
"Indeed, the tonal value of banknotes outstanding continues to grow in line with the overall growth of the economy and reached $57.9 billion at the end of 2010."
The new notes will be printed on Guardian substrate, manufactured by Securency International of Australia.
Guardian has been used in more than 32 countries since being introduced in 1988.
The notes will continue to be printed by Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd., and BA International Inc., both based in Ottawa.
In the 1990s, the bank did issue 100,000 experimental $5 Birds of Canada notes with paper over a polymer core, but discontinued the project when the supplier was unable to produce the material in sufficient scale.
Polymer notes are produced on transparent substrate. The substrate is printed white to provide a printing surface and cut into sheets. Transparent areas are left for the windows and dots, and images are laser etched into the note to make them virtually impossible to photocopy or scan.
The notes are then printed in a series of operations that create the background colour, then the rough details, and finally the fine details and raised lettering. At the last stages, the notes are given serial numbers and cut.
In the next six months, the Bank of Canada will be raising public awareness of the new note series, as well as providing more information to the cash-handling industry.
As each new note enters circulation, financial institutions will collect the older Canadian Journey notes and return them to the Bank of Canada for destruction. While the older notes will retain legal tender status, they are expected to all but disappear from circulation within two years of their polymer replacement's introduction.
July 19, 2011 to August 1, 2011 issue of Canadian Coin News
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