
Bank of Canada: The New $100 Note - zoowar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chpllnU-To
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decadentcactus
Odd video, but since we're on the topic...

After a trip to the US last year it was easy to see the US currency is awful.
Coming from Aus where we have polymer banknotes, the paper was just terrible,
and I wondered why they hadn't changed it yet.

And don't get me started on having $1 notes and 1c coins. Immediately found
them (the coins at least) entirely pointless and just ignored them.

~~~
sliverstorm
I actually really like US currency. Most other currencies I've handled seem to
be almost entirely paper, too large, occasionally different sizes... I really
like uniformly sized bills that fit easily into a wallet, and the fabric in
the bill seems to improve durability and lend a nicer texture.

Other currency just feels... cheap. No offense.

Agreed on pennies though. They had their place back when they were useful, but
they are almost pointless now.

~~~
grantbachman
Pennies do have their place though. As much as I dislike carrying them around,
imagine not being able to divide up money past the 5 cent barrier. Every store
would have to change their prices to the exact point at which the price of the
item + sales tax equaled a multiple of 5 cents. Or they would keep the item
prices the same, at which point customers might not like they are being
charged, at the maximum, 4 cents more than they should. Those pennies add up.

~~~
ghshephard
If you simply round to the nearest penny (3,4,5,6,7=5, and 8,9,0,1,2=0)on all
transactions, then it evens out.

Those pennies really don't add up. See if you can find a store that won't add
in the extra pennies to round you up, seriously - they certainly don't care.

~~~
nirvdrum
I'm pretty sure the IRS cares though. GAAP don't allow you to just adjust
numbers.

~~~
derobert
The IRS generally allows rounding to the nearest dollar on tax forms (at least
individual and small business; not sure if large corporate are allowed to
round even more). In fact, all the common tax software does so automatically;
the only way to file a return to the cent is to do so by hand.

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jballanc
Skip to 1m 42s to see a clear double Eurion along the bottom edge:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurion>

~~~
redthrowaway
That's damned cool. Presumably only commercial software would be affected?
That is, I assume GIMP works fine for scanning bills.

~~~
ralfd
Implementing it is voluntary, there is no law requiring it, so there are
probably many commercial software which lack this modul. But yes, GIMP doesn't
have it too.

[http://www.rulesforuse.org/pub/index.php?currency_lang=-1...](http://www.rulesforuse.org/pub/index.php?currency_lang=-1&country=-1&region=-1&lang=en&page=-1)

"The CDS has been voluntarily adopted by hardware and software manufacturers,
and prevents personal computers and digital imaging tools from capturing or
reproducing the image of a protected banknote."

~~~
redthrowaway
Hmm. I wonder what the impetus for adoption is. If governments aren't making
it mandatory, then there has to be something in it for canon, xerox, adobe, et
al to go through the trouble of adding that functionality.

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51Cards
Being from Canada, I for one welcome our new plastic overlords. I'm curious
about the actual hand feel but the durability will certainly be welcome. Also
curious to see how these affect counting machines, etc. I do a lot of work at
large cash events so I'll quickly get feedback from the cashiers and cash
managers on if they like them or not.

~~~
dhughes
Feedback here. It sucks!

There are 300 pieces of equipment with bill acceptance devices that have to be
upgraded where I work but I've been transferred to a different section at
work, my current job plus the out in the field, where there are 7000 more
devices which have to be upgraded. That's just the hardware.

When the $100 polymer banknote is physically made the Bank of Canada sends the
data to device vendors who use the data to create firmware to send to their
clients, but they can only make the firmware once the Bank of Canada sends
them the specs of each new poly banknote.

After the $100 note the least used by the general public then will be $50 the
next least used. Then the last three which I would say will be released also
from least to most used so: $10, $5 then finally the most commonly used is $20
bill.

Each time the notes are releases the device vendors get it first and make the
firmware so that means five different firmware changes spread out over two
years.

Add to that some bill acceptor devices have limited memory which means they
may be able to hold data for one or two types of banknotes, different series
version of the same denomination, other may be able to retain ten of each
note.

It sucks but it's expected and it will improve security, I hear bill
acceptance devices for Australia's poly money has nearly 100% acceptance rate
of valid banknotes (100% rejection of fake notes).

I'm guessing since the notes are not paper there will be less bacteria
(especially impetigo) contamination and shedding of paper dust which is a big
problem if you work with currency.

~~~
ghshephard
Two recommendations - first, manufacturers of bill acceptance devices need to
optimize their Firmware Upgrade process, while I realize not everything can be
OTA (Over the air), no bill acceptance device manufacturer, can, with a
straight face, make the claim that they didn't know that there would be new
currency formats coming out.

Second, they should separate the core functionality of their devices
(Scanning, pulling in the bills) from the identification process (Which Bill
is this?) - LUA is a pretty traditional implementation language to do this.

~~~
dhughes
Funny you should mention OTA I was speaking with a vendor just last Monday
after some testing and he said there are plans to have our central system be
able to push new firmware directly to the device, no humans involved. It's
still in development from what I could tell more OAW (over-a-wire) than OTA.
But as I said a lot of devices are old with limited memory and a lot still use
EPROMs for storage rather than flash so the EPROM has to be removed to be
flashed using a EPROM read/write tool.

But still the Bank of Canada or any bank or institution which makes a
country's currency has to give the physical currency to someone to scan and
input the data into an application which all takes time.

The vendors are certainly aware of new formats (series) but as I said they
can't do anything until the actual bill is in their hands, I don't know the
exact process but I know the vendors of the bill acceptance devices have to
wait like everyone else. I'm sure a lot of it is due to security, giving some
company a $100 bill and risking it being counterfeited.

The vending/casino business is not known to play nice so I don't think LUA or
any sort of cooperation would go over well, I'm surprised IGT even allowed SAS
to be licensed but I guess money was made.

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shii
Sounds like it'd be bitch to counterfeit, but I think this just throws in the
gauntlet for those interested in the challenge. Interested in what the
processes they used to build the different features mentioned, at scale.

~~~
nihilocrat
That's a good point, but I think it's a similar issue to computer security.
Yeah, changing your SSH port to a custom one isn't going to keep out someone
who scans your ports, but it will keep out the millions of losers who are
looking for easy prey and not bothering with a portscan. With each security
measure that is potentially crackable, but harder, the pool of crackers that
are going to put in the effort gets smaller.

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eloop
It's a change for Australia to export something that hasn't simply been fed
grass or dug out of the ground. Hopefully we'll make lots of money making
money :-) And btw, the notes work really well, can't imagine using tatty bits
of green paper after 20 years with the new technology.

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dmix
Secure. Durable. Innovative.

Sounds like a bad powerpoint presentation.

~~~
wisty
Well, the Reserve Bank of Australia's subsidiary used to just offer hookers,
coke, and offshore bank accounts to their clients; but was told it wasn't an
appropriate sales technique for a government owned entity.

Duckduckgo "RBA corruption".

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jodrellblank
_The bills have one more security feature that /you/ can check_

And how many more that I _can't_ check?

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daimyoyo
My first job was in a plastics plant and one thing I noticed was that when you
deform clear plastic, it tends to become cloudy. I wonder how these will fight
that, seeing as almost every one will be folded at some time in it's
lifecycle.

~~~
Aramgutang
Australian currency, which is made of the same polymer and has transparent
windows as well, seems to handle it just fine. No matter how strongly I bend
and abuse it at the window, it doesn't lose transparency.

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andre
I wonder what is costs to produce each one.

~~~
AndyIngram
.19c vs .10c for the old one but they will last 2.5 times longer. And the
polymer and is from Australia. source
[http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110620/boc-...](http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110620/boc-
money-unveiling-110620/20110620/?hub=CalgaryHome)

~~~
jarek
Because I had to check the link myself... The costs are 19c and 10c
respectively, or $0.19 and $0.10. 0.10c would be pretty cheap.

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yhlasx
This things are damn durable. As far as i know, if you fold them they get back
to their original shape.

[Most] People don't use cash these days anyway.

~~~
mtw
are you from Canada? I do notice and almost half of transactions at bars,
restaurants, buses, coffee shops, bakeries etc. are made with cash

~~~
msbarnett
Are you from Canada? I am, and the only time I ever have a need to carry cash
is when I'm in the US. Debit transactions are ubiquitous here; I really miss
that when I'm in the US.

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edkennedy
There's an 'eye in the pyramid' in the building under the large transparent
window.

~~~
nakkiel
It's a conspiracy, isn't it?

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jdavid
I wonder if using DNA markers in currency might be interesting.

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lakeeffect
Do these physical notes contain chemical tracers?

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jivejones
these new bills will be quite similar to the bills in Hong Kong.

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lakeeffect
I want one dozen.

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dendory
The new $100 bill... which costs $105 to make! jk ;P

~~~
etfb
Never fear! It costs $105 in US dollars - by next week, that'll be about 15
cents anywhere else.

