Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Following The Lead Of Their Southern Neighbors


Canada Ready to Change Coins, Notes


There will be different change in change in Canada beginning in 2011. The changes about to take place in Canadian coins and bank notes will save the Bank of Canada money, and may begin an entirely new series of $1 and $2 coins to be collected as well as new, significantly more durable bank notes.Right now, according to CTV television, it costs 30 cents to produce the $1 “Loonie” and the $2 ringed bimetal “Toonie” at the Royal Canadian Mint. At the time this article was being written the particulars were not yet available, but the government was looking to save up to $15 million Canadian annually by changing the composition of each of these two coin denominations, while introducing polymer plastic bank notes to replace all the paper-cotton composition notes now in use.This much was known: Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the Loonie and Toonie would be steel rather than predominantly nickel based. Flaherty’s remarks did not indicate if the $2 coin will continue to be ringed and bimetal or not. Since 2000 Canada’s 1- to 50-cent coins have been struck using a multi-ply steel technology that involves There will be different change in change in Canada beginning in 2011. The changes about to take place in Canadian coins and bank notes will save the Bank of Canada money, and may begin an entirely new series of $1 and $2 coins to be collected, as well as new, significantly more durable bank notes.Right now, according to CTV television, it costs 30 cents to produce the $1 “Loonie” and the $2 ringed bimetal “Toonie” at the Royal Canadian Mint. At the time this article was being written the particulars were not yet available, but the government was looking to save up to $15 million Canadian annually by changing the composition of each of these two coin denominations, while introducing polymer plastic bank notes to replace all the paper-cotton composition notes now in use.This much was known: Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the Loonie and Toonie would be steel rather than predominantly nickel based. Flaherty’s remarks did not indicate if the $2 coin will continue to be ringed and bimetal or not. Since 2000 Canada’s 1- to 50-cent coins have been struck using a multi-ply steel technology that involves electroplating layers of nickel and copper on a steel core. This same technology will be applied to the 2011 $1 and $2 coins.The changes in Canada’s currency are not proposals. The changes are definite and are outlined in Budget 2010. The new coins and bank notes will be introduced in 2011.According to a March 4 www.CTV.ca report, “It’s the same technology being used to make our smaller, shiny change, and the coins will be calibrated to the same weight as they are currently, so they’ll still work in vending machines. Our current Loonie is made from an alloy called aureate – which is a bronze-plated nickel. The Toonie is ‘bi-metallic,’ a ring of pure nickel surrounding a primarily copper alloy center.”The RCM has modified the metal content of all other circulating coin denominations in recent years, each change being planned to reduce manufacturing costs while allowing the coins to remain sufficiently consistent as to remain acceptable for the vending machine industry.Regarding the upcoming changes in Canada’s bank notes the Feb. 4 Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto announced “Canada’s money is going plastic!”The Globe and Mail enthusiastically added, “The plastic-feeling bills will also allow the Bank of Canada to design funkier notes—with clear windows in them, for instance—as well as extra, embedded security measures.” The notes will actually cost more to produce, but will save the bank money since each note is anticipated to last between two and three times longer in circulation than will a paper-cotton composition note of the same denomination. No information was immediately available regarding the life expectancy of a $1 or $2 coin once the metal content of each of these two coins is changed.Canada will, among other things, attempt to keep one step ahead of the counterfeiters by such extreme changes to its bank notes. Cutting edge technology regarding polymer composition bank notes has been generally credited to Note Printing Australia as well as to Switzerland. The Globe and Mail reported, “Ottawa will rely on a sole supplier­—an Australian company—for the polymer bank note material. In theory, at least, the scarcity of this [polymer material] means fraudsters will be hard-pressed to fake their own notes.” Although this may become a deterrent for bank note forgers, since a $1 and a $2 coin have significant purchasing power it is possible counterfeits might turn their efforts in their direction instead. To date there has been no indication there are a significant number of counterfeit Canadian $1 and $2 coins being detected, however several other foreign countries in which high purchasing power coins have replaced low denomination bank notes in recent years have reported more interest in faking these coins.Canada, on the other hand, stopped issuing $1,000 bank notes several years ago not due to counterfeiting, but because the significantly larger denomination note was being used by individuals trying to avoid detection when making large financial transactions. United Press International recently reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as saying more than 141,000 counterfeit bank notes with a face value of $3.3 million were detected in 2007.

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