Plastic Currency

I agree with Fox.

I always wondered why the U.S. never tried polymer notes. Too many special interests. I guess we will never see them here.

I know... why don't they just make coins instead of notes

Not to mention, what will happen when we use up all the petroleum?

More reasons to ditch our one dollar notes in favour of a one dollar coin.

There will always be counterfeiters. The problem is not to do away with counterfeiting entirely, but to discourage it, by making it more difficult & expensive (thus less rewarding), & to make counterfeits easier to detect (so that it's harder to get away with).

One important point is that any proposed security measure has to be actually used. In other words, a watermark (for example) is no good if people don't actually look at it ; likewise, microprinting & security threads are pretty much only of value if the note is already suspected, because nobody's going to take the trouble over them otherwise. The transparent window on the plastic notes is a pretty good measure of this kind, because it's easily checked & not easily imitated. To my way of thinking, though, high-quality single-colour intaglio printing on paper still has its advantages, & I think it was a major misstep to reduce the amount of fine-line work on the newer US currency.

And hey! Like those "pro"-dollar coin people say "Dollar coins are 100% recyclable" NOW the "pro"-$1 bill people can say that $1 bills are ALSO 100% recyclable!" so, no more shredded bills as waste in the landfills, as both coins and paper(err..plastic) bills could be recycled when they wear out. The polymer bills will last as long as the first print of each redesign and we will be printing and minting less bills and coins, the government saves money, people keep their $1 bills and everyone is happy.

I do believe that if we do go to polymer, that the $1 and $2 bills should be redesigned, each and every time the $5-100 (or hopefully they add $200 and $500 and possibly, $1,000 bills, and since they are redesigning the $2 bill next time around, $2-$1,000) and the government should really try to get $2 bills into circulation to save on even less polymer $1 bills needed, and of course, halves, to reduce the needs for as many quarters as they mint. Two $1 bills for each $2 bill, and two quarters for each half might not "seem" like much, but the savings ARE there, and if the government is trying to save money in any way they can, maybe they should scrap the dollar coin idea, go to polymer banknotes, and use the $2 bill and half extensively. I'm not saying that they should force $2 bills and halves on people like a threat or something, but bank and credit union tellers SHOULD be stocked with both denominations, and use them as needed, and most people probably would not oppose them, but as long as the banks, credit unions, stores and vending machines do not hand out/dispense them, people are not going to go out of their way to obtain them.

And one last thing we should do, if we are going to keep the cent, is reissue the 2-cent coin, to cut down on minting less one cent coins, thus saving the government even more money. (Hey, the Euro has a 2 cent coin in curculation, so, why can't the U.S.?) And we should upgrade ALL cash register drawers to have the 5 bill slots ($1, $2, $5, $10, $20/$50/$100, to make change for $100, $200, $500 and $1,000 bills in the fifth slot and $200 and $500 bills should go under the till to secretly be available to make change for $500 and $1,000 bills, and $1,000 bills should go directly in a safe, for security reasons) and six coin slots (1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 25c, and 50c)

Then, no more debates of getting rid of the cent or paper err..plastic $1 bill, or the half, and circulate ALL of the denominations I mentioned, as needed. Then we can wait it out, with the only change to our currency sustem being "design" change, and NOT "denomination" change, until a cashless society comes to be (which I believe will NEVER come to be, but thats just me)