The U.S. isn't the only country putting anti-counterfeiting devices on its money. Canada recently one-upped us by creating a new 100 dollar bill made of polymer plastic. It has its share of anti-counterfeiting devices, including two clear plastic "windows". Perhaps in the future all money bills will be plastic, and counterfeiting history!

Money isn't everything, but it ranks right up there with oxygen. Rita Davenport

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Hong Kong Banknote
This is our HK$10 banknote from 2007. It also has a window and is completely polymer. Quite ugly but hard to copy. I have a boxful as I put them in lycee packets at CNY.

I haven't heard of any plans for this sort of thing in the UK. But then, our currency isn't worth much any more anyway, so why bother?

Those polymer notes were developed here in Oz and we've had those notes since 1988. I prefer the old designs but the notes are perfectly functional so I have no complaints. One benefit? They won't dissolve if you wash them by accident. I haven't tried this but apparently they will shrink if exposed to heat so you can make a very expensive set of Shrinkies

I've just watched an article on CBC news about the new bills and how they tested them with heat and cold,washing,soaking them in various liquids,staining them with mustard and ketchup, even putting them through a rock tumbler to test durability and i must say i was impressed.
The bills cost more to print, but that cost is offset by the expected extended lifespan and difficulty of conterfeiters to be able to duplicate this currency.
I am curious,since Australia has has had these type of bills since 1988,has counterfeiting gone down down under or have they caught up with the technology?

I have no idea if counterfeiting has increased or decreased. The best counterfeiters will never be caught as no one will know the notes are fake. A few months ago there were dodgy $50 notes going around. From memory.. they were pretty good copies at first glance but if you scratched the "logo" (for want of a better word) on the clear plastic section it came right off. They were rather easy to detect if you know knew what to look for. Here's three articles about our money with a bit more info.
http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/currency.html
http://www.questacon.edu.au/indepth/clever/plastic_banknotes.html
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/australi...rticle_id=10080

I miss Francis Greenway who was on our $10 notes before we changed over to the polymer money. Francis Greenway was the government architect in colonial Sydney. He was an architect by trade in England before he committed a forgery and was transported here as punishment. He designed many buildings that are still standing in Sydney and in 1966 when we changed to decimal currency he was plonked on our $10. What a great country this is... we eat the animals on the coat of arms (emu and kangaroo) and we had a convicted forger on our money!

Don't think I'd want to try either myself. Do they "taste like chicken" like every other odd meat?

As for thwarting counterfeiters, I'm game for whatever it takes. Blacklights will show a lot for US bills.

I've never eaten emu but a couple of websites I've just looked at say it's like lean beef. A bit of roo is delicious though! It's very lean, only 1-2% fat, so you cook it to rare or medium-rare at best otherwise it's tough like an old boot. It's similar to beef but a bit more gamey. With a red wine or berry sauce.. *drool*

One of my team mates, young Doublemm, is appearing on television tonight in the next round of University Challenge... and is going to watch his performance in a pub that serves "exotic burgers". He says he's going to eat ostrich and won't eat the llama... he'd better not!

That wouldn't be Fuddruckers...would it?

When the mint came out with the golden dollars, I was very excited. No more worrying about cash tearing and they'd be almost impossible to counterfeit. I used them to buy a pizza and the counter person asked if they were real, and another store didn't want to take them as they thought they were fake. Now I use them primarily for emergency money.

My coworker recently had difficulty using an American dollar coin. Not many Canadians are aware that the US does, in fact, mint dollar denominations in coin. She tried to spend it at whatever store she was at and they refused to take it. Not because it was foreign currency but because "Americans don't use dollar coins".

It was a Sacagawea dollar. I have one of those in my collection.

Is oil used in the manufacturing of plastic? If, and I have no idea if it's true, we've reached and surpassed "peak oil", will we continue to use it for things that could be made of other products?

I'm just curious...

Lee

There is a petroleum product of some sort that is part of the plastic making process, but as to exactly what it is, that I don't know.

About twenty years ago, I forgot I'd left a £10 note in a skirt pocket.
I washed it at 40°C and it came out as fresh as a daisy.

In my house I have this plastic preview of a 100 buck bill, and I'm feeling that they are improving to high security.

Laundered Money?
A greased plastic bill slips easier into bureaucrats palms when buying influence! And, you can launder wash the grease off the money to hide all traces of the transaction. Freezer burn is also less evident on plastic bills after being hidden in your freezer.