New Canadian Money

[officeglenn]

Just keep a stash of gold in case things go to Hell and you're good.

"One thing I promised myself when I buried gold in my backyard was that I would never be a hoarder or a miser about it."

[winters in buffalo]

^

Cashless society, FTW.

Just keep a stash of gold in case things go to Hell and you're good.

Edit: Water... or fuel. When everything truly goes to hell, gold will be worthless.

I'm with you on the first part, though. I rarely ever use cash.

[drdougfresh]

Haha, totally forgot about this post... sorry. Yeah, the US concept money is not practical, I just thought it looked cool.

+1 on cashless. The only thing I have HAD to use cash on recently is a vending machine-- and even those are now taking cards. With concepts like Google Wallet on the rise, I'm almost wondering how much longer until a card becomes obsolete. Crazy how fast everything changes.

[elsephen]

I was going to say- this reminds me of the Aussie dollars.

And ever since I saw Aussie money (like 10 years ago) I thought- wow, America is really, really behind on this one. Why wouldn't they go this route? Instead we make dollars that pretty much anyone can replicate.

I disagree with people saying it doesnt look good also. Once you see the physical version rather than rendered, it'll definitely look better than our generic notes.

You can't rip these things either. The guy that showed me said he'd give me 50 American dollars if I could rip the Aussie dollar. Couldn't do it. Meanwhile, ours gets stuck in a vending machine and we're screwed.

The windows in them are what I like most.

[IceCap]

The United States should not rely on dollar coins and two dollar coins. I am not going to be carrying a coin purse on me and I despise coins in the first place. Although I do admire Canada's stainless steel coinage but I hate the fact that it's the same size as American coinage.

You don't have to carry a coin purse around up here.

Travel to other places once and while. Broaden your world view. It'll be good for you.

[Hathaway Browne]

I hate the idea of a cashless society. It bugs me when someone has to get their card out, then stick it in the reader then remember their pin and then enter it whilst trying to hide it from view, when they could have just handed over a £5 or something.

[Mac the Knife]

I for one have longed for a complete overhaul of U.S. currency - including producing solely $1 coins, rather than having both $1 notes and coins. I've also always thought that we don't use nearly enough color in our notes.

I'm also a fan of restoring our practice (abandoned in 1969) of producing larger denomination notes ($500, $1,000). The idea behind the law limiting our production to denominations of $100 or less (ostensibly to make it harder for drug traffickers to ply their trade) isn't anywhere near as much a deterrent to them as it is an impairment for everyday folks to buy a car or conduct certain other transactions with cash (yes, those people still exist, believe it or not).

The biggest monetary change I'd like to see, however, is an across-the-board redenomination which reflects inflation which has taken place over the past 50 years or so. The dollar of 1960, for instance, equates to approximately $ 7.28 today. In my lifetime, there has been a devaluation of our currency's actual worth approaching nearly 85%. We have a federal budget that approaches $ 4,000,000,000,000 a year - a figure that is impossible to comprehend for most.

So release an all-new series of bills and coins, valuing them at 1 for every 20 of the "old" dollar, and giving people a set period of time (say, 5 years) to convert old dollars to new, after which time the old notes would be demonetized. The effects of such a switch would be profound, predominately positive both psychologically (imagine gas being 69 cents a gallon instead of $ 3.40), economically (not all notes would be converted, reducing actual money supply slightly), in terms of international trade (a significantly stronger dollar would definitely have an impact), and in terms of law enforcement (a Tony Montana-like figure being able to convert $100 million in old notes for $20 million in new ones, I suspect, would raise some red flags).

[greyraven8]

The new CDN $100 and $50 look okay. Not any better or worse looking than any other Canadian bills in recent times. For the back of the bills would have preferred something like the scenery used back on the Canadian bills in the 1950's to 1970's.

Following Australia and New Zealand (among others) as well as changing to 'plastic' bank notes, Canada should also get rid of the penny and use 'Swedish rounding'. For an even more radical idea that won't happen, Canada should ditch the Queen on the new plastic $20 when it comes out and start doing the same for coins.

Would be nice if the U.S. at least put some more colour in their bank notes. Changing to completely different colours for each note would be nice but is probably too radical for the U.S; maybe a different colour stripe running vertically through each bill?

[FiddySicks]

I absolutely love foreign currency, and it was one of the many highlights of my trip to Europe this summer. American money is so boring looking. I wouldn't necessarily be for switching to European like money, as it feels quite a bit cheaper than the American dollar, but it would be kind of exciting. I also like the idea of different sized bills as well. That really does make finding different bills easier.

Compared to our money, the British Pound is so much brighter and more colorful.

The Euro is even more so.

But neither compare to the Swiss franc, which can pretty much be seen from the moon

Hopefully the Euro isn't abolished, because I still have quite a bit of it left But hey, I guess it could be a good novelty item some day.

I have a TON of coins too, and some of them are simply fantastic looking compared to quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.

[drdougfresh]

+1 on the Euro-- I loved how colorful they were, and they used a lot of cool (and therefore tough to copy) counterfeit protection measures. The US money has always been a little bit on the bland side to me, even with recent attempts to add some color.

[Morgan33]

^

Cashless society, FTW.

Just keep a stash of gold in case things go to Hell and you're good.

Well said. There is a reason why more and more people are hiding their cash under mattresses. As for the design, I like it. Hopefully all our legal tender notes recieve this same treatment.

[VC//]

Why does it have to have the maple leaf all over it?

Seriously though, that is an amazing bill. Is that the Peace Tower? I hope the USA goes this route: the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty, and the White House would all look amazing on a window like that. Does anyone know what the windows feel like? In my head, I would expect something that looks like that to be that crinkly kind of plastic, but I don't think they'd go that route. Is this like the US redesign project where they start with the $100 and work their way down? I hope they have bills like this for at least the $20, so I have a chance to check one out when I'm in Canada. I don't really see myself carrying around too many $100's, unless the exchange rate really improves...

That's like asking why there is an eagle or white house on US currency...the Maple Leaf is what is known as our national identity in that same sense. In any case, the money looks nice, US money looked nice back in the day until they took the red out of it.

[VC//]

+1 on the Euro-- I loved how colorful they were, and they used a lot of cool (and therefore tough to copy) counterfeit protection measures. The US money has always been a little bit on the bland side to me, even with recent attempts to add some color.

Canadian counterfeit money is so easy to spot too because of the hologram being tough to duplicate. You rarely see Canadian counterfeit because of that. Now with even more security features, good luck to the clowns that try to counterfeit that.

[Cosmic]

Why does it have to have the maple leaf all over it?

Seriously though, that is an amazing bill. Is that the Peace Tower? I hope the USA goes this route: the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty, and the White House would all look amazing on a window like that. Does anyone know what the windows feel like? In my head, I would expect something that looks like that to be that crinkly kind of plastic, but I don't think they'd go that route. Is this like the US redesign project where they start with the $100 and work their way down? I hope they have bills like this for at least the $20, so I have a chance to check one out when I'm in Canada. I don't really see myself carrying around too many $100's, unless the exchange rate really improves...

That's like asking why there is an eagle or white house on US currency...the Maple Leaf is what is known as our national identity in that same sense.

sarcasm

[nuordr]

That is a great looking bill, but it will suck when people start cutting out the clear wrap.

[geoffrey]

I posted this in the "Money" thread already but since this is about Canadian money specifically I thought I'd repost it here as well.

I've always been wondering about the fate of the $20 bill. With the new polymer issue coming out in 2013, what would happen if the Queen would pass away in the next couple of years. Would they keep the design, replace it with the new monarch (Charles, William or whoever else), or bring in a new figure? Personally, I would prefer a new figure and not necessarily a former Prime Minister, but possibly a First Nation icon or an ordinary Canadian who did something great for the nation.

As far as the coins are concerned, I believe we should keep minting the profile of the current monarch. One thing I know is that the direction in which the profile is facing alternates everytime there is a change. So for instance the Queen's profile is looking to the right now, so the next monarch will be facing to the left.

[Mings]

I posted this in the "Money" thread already but since this is about Canadian money specifically I thought I'd repost it here as well.

I've always been wondering about the fate of the $20 bill. With the new polymer issue coming out in 2013, what would happen if the Queen would pass away in the next couple of years. Would they keep the design, replace it with the new monarch (Charles, William or whoever else), or bring in a new figure? Personally, I would prefer a new figure and not necessarily a former Prime Minister, but possibly a First Nation icon or an ordinary Canadian who did something great for the nation.

As far as the coins are concerned, I believe we should keep minting the profile of the current monarch. One thing I know is that the direction in which the profile is facing alternates everytime there is a change. So for instance the Queen's profile is looking to the right now, so the next monarch will be facing to the left.

Wayne Gretzky?

[Mac the Knife]

I posted this in the "Money" thread already but since this is about Canadian money specifically I thought I'd repost it here as well.

I've always been wondering about the fate of the $20 bill. With the new polymer issue coming out in 2013, what would happen if the Queen would pass away in the next couple of years. Would they keep the design, replace it with the new monarch (Charles, William or whoever else), or bring in a new figure? Personally, I would prefer a new figure and not necessarily a former Prime Minister, but possibly a First Nation icon or an ordinary Canadian who did something great for the nation.

As far as the coins are concerned, I believe we should keep minting the profile of the current monarch. One thing I know is that the direction in which the profile is facing alternates everytime there is a change. So for instance the Queen's profile is looking to the right now, so the next monarch will be facing to the left.

Wayne Gretzky?

Can you just imagine how popular a "Heroes of Hockey" series of notes would be? A $5 with Jacques Plante, a $10 with Tim Horton, a $20 with Gordie Howe, a $50 with Wayne Gretzky, etc., etc.?

[HedleyLamarr]

The amount of change you sometimes end up with in Canada with the 1 and 2 dollar coins can be a pain. Of course, this is why we use debit for damn near everything.

When I went to Windsor this summer, my girlfriend handed me a Ziploc sandwich bag full of Canadian coins (nearly $40 total) to spend or convert to paper bills while I was there.

The chicks at the duty-free store and the Caesar's casino were thrilled to receive all these coins from me....

[winghaz]

We have a candy machine at work that, if you put a $5 in it, it gives back change in $1 coins. Most of the coins are in the presidential series, so I have two James Garfield dollar coins in my pocket.

I rather like this. The dollar coins are handy. I think we should add $2 coins as well, just like Canada, simply because they would be great for vending machines.

But if Barack Obama ever replaces George Washington on the $1 bill, I'm moving to Winnipeg.