New $5 and $10 Bills to Start Circulating in 2013

The Bank of Canada unveiled the latest and last of the new redesigned polymer bank notes this week. The $5 and $10 polymer notes will complete the series that began with the $100 note in November 2011.

As you may have noticed, the new polymer style notes are not just aesthetically more pleasing than their predecessors, but they are estimated to have more than two and a half times their life-span.

That’s not all though, the most important features of the notes are their security protections. In the early 2000s, the Canadians notes were being counterfeited at an alarming rate; in 2004 the RCMP estimates that over 550,000 fake notes were passed in Canada. The special polymer material, holography, transparency, and braille features are all being relied upon for keeping our currency secure from counterfeiting.

Not much has been revealed regarding the featured designs on the new notes, but representatives from Via Rail and the Canadian Space Agency are purportedly to be in attendance and may provide explanations as to the themes of the featured art work.

For an interactive look and in depth security details of the new notes see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/cdnbanknotes/