The Bank of England is moving to polymer banknotes

April 30, 2016 5:27 AM

The next Bank of England £5, £10 and £20 banknotes will be printed on polymer. "The new fiver will be issued in September 2016. On 2 June, the full details of the design and security features will be revealed and a range of training materials for retailers and businesses will be released. The £10 note will be issued in 2017 and the £20 note by 2020. Polymer banknotes are cleaner, more secure, and more durable than paper banknotes. They will provide enhanced counterfeit resilience, and increase the quality of banknotes in circulation."
posted by lungtaworld (83 comments total)

I have read about the advantages of plastic money before, and wondered why it hasn't been done sooner. The US treasury should do this with the Harriet Tubman note, even if it disrupts their schedule.
posted by TedW at 5:39 AM on April 30, 2016

Well, I hate to be a buzzkill, but Australia has been using exclusively polymer notes for 20 years now...
posted by Salamander at 5:43 AM on April 30, 2016 [16 favorites]

I oppose this unnatural innovation. I want my money to be organic, damnit, not the product of organic chemistry!
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:47 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

This isn't even the first in the UK - NI had a special run of plastic fivers to celebrate the milennium, and the Clydesdale's plastic fivers are already in circulation in Scotland. This is not dissing the story - I'm all for more durable notes. However, neither the Bank of England nor the Clydesdale's FAQs are telling me whether these will survive a go in the washing machine, which is the really important question.
posted by Vortisaur at 5:49 AM on April 30, 2016

However, neither the Bank of England nor the Clydesdale's FAQs are telling me whether these will survive a go in the washing machine, which is the really important question.

Yes. You can't rip them either. They're indestructible.
posted by Talez at 5:50 AM on April 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm pretty happy to have plastic money. No doubt folks will complain, but if it means notes are generally in better fettle then it will be a plus.

But putting Churchill on the fiver is wrong in my opinion. Too political, when we should be celebrating scientists. Franklin and Turing come to mind as worthy.
posted by Emma May Smith at 5:51 AM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

We've had polymer here in Canada for the past couple of years. It's pretty neat.
posted by Kitteh at 5:51 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

One of the sadder details that comes out of these bill changes is that it is now too difficult for treasuries to by bulk used denim that was a component of former bills because almost all denim sold these days is adulterated. The US treasury has to buy specially produced new denim because modern jeans suck. Maybe someday bills will be made out of the polymer denim we are close to wearing.

However, neither the Bank of England nor the Clydesdale's FAQs are telling me whether these will survive a go in the washing machine, which is the really important question.

The Canadian experience is that they will. Like everything these days there are even youtube videos.
posted by srboisvert at 5:53 AM on April 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

Turing

It'd be a nice way to start to make up for the atrocities the government of the day committed driving the man to suicide.
posted by Talez at 5:53 AM on April 30, 2016 [17 favorites]

Australia's had these for a while. It's like spending money in lego land! And they're goofy colours; the blue-tongue (10), red-back (20), pineapple (50).

Also we have adapted the technology to print solar cells, which is a super exciting field. The Australian mint also prints polymer notes for a few other countries.
posted by adept256 at 5:57 AM on April 30, 2016

Yes. You can't rip them either. They're indestructible.

Handing somebody an Australian note and telling them to tear it up is good times.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:59 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes. You can't rip them either. They're indestructible.

Yes you can. If you keep the half with the serial number on it the bank has to honour it.
posted by adept256 at 6:00 AM on April 30, 2016

'Bout time the damn Poms caught up. We antipodeans, have had them for years. Also...fuck you for invading a populated country! But yeah, we've had them for millenia. You can have your queen back, but. Looks like the Yanks have some mic drop thing going on with her and the ranger grandy, though. Keep 'em both. Colonialists.
posted by taff at 6:01 AM on April 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

Polymer toilet paper
posted by TedW at 6:01 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Handing somebody an Australian note and telling them to tear it up is good times."

I can do it if you send me some. Though my trick only works on the higher denominations.
posted by I-baLL at 6:02 AM on April 30, 2016 [21 favorites]

The Bank of Canada has issued exclusively polymer banknotes since 2013. I like them a lot, although some people criticise them because the notes stick together when they are new, and melt when you leave them in a hot car. Parts of the Canadian banknotes are transparent, and they have holograms imprinted in them.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:04 AM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

It'd be a nice way to start to make up for the atrocities the government of the day committed driving the man to suicide.

Putting Turing on a banknote would neither be a punishment nor a memorial. It's not about atoning for anything; it's not about walking to Canossa. I don't want a banknote in my wallet which says I should feel bad or my country should be humiliated. That's a mighty quick way to get folk to hate Turing. It's about saying that--regardless of everything, everything--he's a man whose work is important and deserves to be a national figure.
posted by Emma May Smith at 6:04 AM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

I'm looking at the pineapple I just bisected and have mixed feelings towards pope guilty right now. But maybe I should shut my mouth because I've just noticed there's a serial number on each half.
posted by adept256 at 6:05 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Handing somebody an Australian note and telling them to tear it up is good times.

I keep $85 in Australian currency in my wallet (one of every note up to $50). It makes a good ice breaker.
posted by Talez at 6:10 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

So much for "paper or plastic?"
posted by jonmc at 6:15 AM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

You can't rip them either.

ours tear - particularly corners. i guess maybe there's more than one polymer in use, though.

modern jeans suck

where "suck" means "contain lycra and fit better"?
posted by andrewcooke at 6:16 AM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

where "suck" means "contain lycra and fit better"?

Maybe on your backside. I will go to bat for most modern jeans being skinny fit rubbish that falls apart fairly rapidly, and certainly isn't made for people with my caliber of thigh. So frustrating to have what should be a hard wearing piece of clothing just go to pot after a few washes.
posted by Dysk at 6:32 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Putting Turing on a banknote would neither be a punishment nor a memorial. It's not about atoning for anything; it's not about walking to Canossa. I don't want a banknote in my wallet which says I should feel bad or my country should be humiliated.

Turing was a national and international hero brutally done to our death by our security services. We cannot put him on our money without at least acknowledging that and recognising its importance. It would be like Germany putting Walter Benjamin on a bank note without recognising the significance of the fact that he was a victim of the Holocaust. Only moreso, in light of the continuity of regime.
posted by howfar at 6:38 AM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

Also we have adapted the technology to print solar cells

Just in time for solar-powered blockchain banknotes.
posted by acb at 6:40 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

But can you iron them in preparation for a Saturday at the arcade so the token machine won't reject them
posted by middleclasstool at 6:42 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also, it's good that they're starting with the £5; presumably due to £5 notes getting more use than the higher denominations, the average fiver in circulation is in a rather sorry state.
posted by acb at 6:45 AM on April 30, 2016

Putting Turing on a banknote would neither be a punishment nor a memorial.

Could we have a picture of babbage, Lovelace, and Turing giving each other high fives?
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:52 AM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

I oppose this unnatural innovation. I want my money to be organic, damnit, not the product of organic chemistry!

Don't worry. The cotton and paper lobbies in the USA will make sure we're on the paper bills for centuries to come. We can't even get a dollar coin to take hold because of these jerks.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:54 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

The Bank of Canada has issued exclusively polymer banknotes since 2013. I like them a lot, although some people criticise them because the notes stick together yt when they are new, and melt when you leave them in a hot car. Parts of the Canadian banknotes are transparent, and they have holograms yt imprinted in them.

IIRC, we've licenced the Aussie technology to do so.

Added bonus of the material: the Braille on them remains legible after extensive circulation. That wasn't the case with the paper notes.

I'm of the strong opinion that people who leave their wallet in their car deserve what they get, up to and including melted bills.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:04 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

The hubris and shortsightedness of making something as fundamentally disposable as a banknote out of plastic annoys me. I get that it's more efficient to have banknotes that are useful for ten years instead of two or whatever, but what happens after that? Plastic is forever. After their useful decade is up, is there a plan for the next hundred millenia? Dead banknotes will get recycled if they make it back to the central bank, which is great, but that buys at most another fifty years of use from the plastic feedstock, and we can't recycle plastic indefinitely—eventually it becomes too degraded and adulterated to be useful. Paper banknotes may be harder to recycle, but at least they're biodegradable. Over a timescale of millenia, almost everything that is biodegradable will make its way back into the infinite recycling system that is the biosphere. Not so for plastic.

Obviously this concern doesn't apply exclusively to plastic banknotes, but this article awakened what has been a growing concern for me: our society's increasing use of nonbiodegradable plastic for everything under the Sun. I am really starting to feel that we need to either come up with a way of breaking down plastic on a global scale and returning it to the Earth after its time as useful material is over, or else think seriously about drastically scaling back our use of a material that is doomed to haunt the Earth as garbage for hundreds of thousands of years.

Is this the legacy that we want to leave behind? A hundred thousand years from now, when our society has either transformed beyond recognition, vanished, or been replaced by something else entirely (or all three) do we want the first thing people (or sentient elephantoids or whatever) to think when they hear about us to be "Damn, they sure junked up the place something fierce, didn't they?" I know it's hard to to think on that kind of timescale, but if we're doing things that will have effects on that scale then we really need to be putting a lot more thought into our actions today.

This concludes today's episode of Screaming at the Wind. We now return you to your regularly scheduled weekend.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:12 AM on April 30, 2016 [14 favorites]

They've got polymer (I think--plasticky anyway) notes in Mexico, too, and they're different colors. It's awesome.

I want this in the states. And functional dollar coins. I was so sad when I heard they were not continuing the presidential dollars. And what will the tooth fairy do?
posted by leahwrenn at 7:12 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I remember people showing that you couldn't safely microwave the new plastic Australian notes and my immediate thought was "How often does anyone accidentally microwave their wallet or purse?"

I really don't want to know, do I?
posted by nfalkner at 7:13 AM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

nfalkner: "I remember people showing that you couldn't safely microwave the new plastic Australian notes and my immediate thought was "How often does anyone accidentally microwave their wallet or purse?"

I really don't want to know, do I?"

Do you really stick a cold wallet in your back pocket? Brrrr!
posted by Splunge at 7:17 AM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

use of nonbiodegradable plastic

Plastic eating bacteria could be a start (we'll have to iron out some issues surrounding the temperature and control of the process though).
posted by cynical pinnacle at 7:20 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I was surprised to not see any outrage here over this. I thought we were all suppose to move away from plastic. I just figured y'all knew something I didn't.
posted by Dalby at 7:21 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also, it's good that they're starting with the £5; presumably due to £5 notes getting more use than the higher denominations, the average fiver in circulation is in a rather sorry state.

I believe it's also difficult getting fivers into circulation, due to banks (for obvious logistical reasons) only putting a limited number in cash machines, so longer lasting fivers are also more urgently needed.
posted by howfar at 7:22 AM on April 30, 2016

Re: microwaving the wallet...Yeah, I once threw my cars keys in the trash and put the plastic packing I had intended to discard back in my pocket. About an hour later I was tearing apart the house for my keys. Never underestimate the distracted and sleep deprived.
posted by Existential Dread at 7:22 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I just looked at the link, and they actually address this. According to their reports, polymer use will be more environmentally friendly than paper. Make of their analysis what you will.
posted by Dalby at 7:23 AM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Turing was a national and international hero brutally done to our death by our security services. We cannot put him on our money without at least acknowledging that and recognising its importance. It would be like Germany putting Walter Benjamin on a bank note without recognising the significance of the fact that he was a victim of the Holocaust. Only moreso, in light of the continuity of regime.

The government has apologized. The point is that his appearance on a banknote would not in itself be an apology but a celebration.

I wish I had never brought his name up. Talking about the past in the UK is just impossible between rah-rah Rule Britannia nonsense of the right and cut-out-your-guts-in-shame leftyism. I'm not the state and I'm not here to defend or denounce it, I just happen to live here. I want the bits of my history which I can build a future and identity on, not to feel like the past is waiting to eat me whole.
posted by Emma May Smith at 7:28 AM on April 30, 2016 [11 favorites]

According to their reports, polymer use will be more environmentally friendly than paper. Make of their analysis what you will.

I don't make a whole lot of it. It says the main environmental benefit comes from their durability, which decreases production costs, energy associated with production, etc. But, as others are saying, durability is also one of the main problems - pieces of these bills will eventually end up swirling in the great Pacific garbage patch forever. Also, I haven't found an explanation of exactly what type of polymer they're using yet. If it's petroleum-based, is that really such a great thing? There have been polymers made of plant materials, like potatoes and corn, that are supposedly biodegradable, but I haven't seen figures on exactly how biodegradable and how much of a net benefit (if any) in production impact those polymers have.
posted by LionIndex at 7:36 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Better for organizing small piles of powder.

Just saying.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 7:39 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also I give up - I'll accept your z if you go metric USA and Myanmar.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 7:40 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Plastic eating bacteria could be a start


Or not. The polymers used in banknotes are BOPP films (Biaxially oriented polypropylene), which often undergo a Metallization process, and are sometimes treated with acrylic and PVDC coatings. I'd think those extra steps could make getting at the polypropylene harder.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:01 AM on April 30, 2016

We can't even get a dollar coin to take hold because of these jerks.

AFAICT the dollar coin is still in production. People just seem to prefer not to use it.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:02 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

The government has apologized. The point is that his appearance on a banknote would not in itself be an apology but a celebration.

Well yes. Fundamentally, this point is sound. But it's just complicated, isn't it? We can celebrate him as a hero and genius while also acknowledging the horror of what was done to him by a state he was instrumental in saving from destruction. Like so many things, it's problematic but not impossible.

Talking about the past in the UKon Metafilter is just impossible between rah-rah Rule Britannia nonsense of the right and cut-out-your-guts-in-shame leftyism.

But we really do mean well.
posted by howfar at 8:05 AM on April 30, 2016

Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 while homosexual acts were still illegal in the UK. He agreed to take hormones rather than go to jail. His death from cyanide in 1954 was judged to be suicide, but there is room for doubt about it and it may have been an accident.

Appalling by any standard, but 'brutally done to death by our security services' is wildly inaccurate.
posted by Segundus at 8:11 AM on April 30, 2016

"Make of their analysis what you will."

"Why, I can make a hat... or a brooch... or a pterodactyl..."
posted by rodeoclown at 8:11 AM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

Would you prefer 'brutally hounded to his death'? Because that is exactly what happened. The man who, arguably, won WWII (or at the very least shortened it considerably) was driven to apparent suicide less than a decade later because he had the poor taste to continue enjoying buggery after leaving school.

Splitting hairs on whether or not the security services actually shoved cyanide down his throat is appallingly tonedeaf.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:19 AM on April 30, 2016 [16 favorites]

When Canada got polymer $20 bills I got excited that they were unrippable... And promptly tore one in half. They don't rip like paper, they kind of snap apart like glass. You have to put some effort into it- but yeah, you can definitely tear them. I scotch-taped mine back together and deposited it at the bank. The teller looked at me with a sigh- she knew exactly what I'd done. Whatever, man, I did it for science
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:22 AM on April 30, 2016 [27 favorites]

AFAICT the dollar coin is still in production. People just seem to prefer not to use it.

The way you deal with that is to stop printing $1 bills, but crank up the $1 coin production.

Seriously, when has the government ever really given a shit about what people want?
posted by mikelieman at 8:22 AM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 while homosexual acts were still illegal in the UK.

The imposition of tyranny is the opposite of the rule of law. I'm not sure that the fact that the state was similarly persecuting other gay people is an ameliorating factor.

Would you prefer 'brutally hounded to his death'? Because that is exactly what happened.

Yes, the security services emphatically didn't leave Turing alone after 1952. He was treated as a security risk and under surveillance on a fairly major scale.

I compared Turing to Walter Benjamin precisely because of the manner of the latter's death. If the state drives people to suicide, it is responsible for those deaths. And while their has been suggestion (most notably by his mother) that Turing did not commit suicide, there's no greater reason to suppose that his death was accidental than to suppose he was murdered.
posted by howfar at 8:35 AM on April 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

AFAICT the dollar coin is still in production. People just seem to prefer not to use it.

I use them the same way I use all coins, throw them in a jar until I have enough to take to the CoinStar machine for an Amazon credit.
posted by octothorpe at 8:40 AM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

This is why I think numismatics is interesting. Banknotes, stamps, and coins are art, but they are entirely political art - the images on the money are there only because the government chose them to be on the money.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:44 AM on April 30, 2016

Seriously, when has the government ever really given a shit about what people want?

Roughly every four years or so.
posted by srboisvert at 8:45 AM on April 30, 2016

I still despise the ones we have in Canada. They smell, stick together, are hard to count quickly, and you can't fold one neatly without creating a crease that's hard to undo.

environmentally friendly than paper

Money used to be made from paper that came from recycling linen rags which is where the origin of the saying, "from rags to riches" comes from. With all the changes in our currency I've wondered how many will become obsolete.
posted by squeak at 8:50 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

". (Note: In December 2011,Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner directed that the United States Mint suspend minting and issuing circulating Presidential $1 Coins. Regular circulating demand for the coins will be met through the Federal Reserve Bank’s existing inventory of circulating coins minted prior to 2012. The United States Mint will continue to offer several products that contain Presidential $1 Coins.)"
posted by leahwrenn at 8:51 AM on April 30, 2016

which is where the origin of the saying, "from rags to riches" comes from

citation please
posted by hippybear at 8:56 AM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

Mexico has been using the same technology as Australia since 2002. Both the 20 peso banknote and the 50 are polymer.
posted by Omon Ra at 9:02 AM on April 30, 2016

Given that the Canadian polymer $5 has that off-maple-syrup smell, I wonder what aromas the British ones will have. Fish & chips? Tea? Quiet desperation?
posted by NumberSix at 9:13 AM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

The initial concerns/rabid hysteria about plastic bills (melting, weird to handle, can slice flesh etc) seemed to disappear about two weeks after they went into circulation in Canada. I quickly got used to them, like that they are crisp, clean and robust, and feel no nostalgia for tattered grubby paper.
Even the fact that they can cling to each other just sets up a classic chill situation: think you're down to your last ten dollar bill, turns out you have two.
posted by Flashman at 9:28 AM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

hippybear, I heard it as part of some documentary or other when I was a kid. In the UK Rag and bone men would collect/scavenge bones, metal, cloth anything of value. The rags would be sold to rag paper makers. And in the USA Crane has been making paper used in American currency for centuries, and at one time used denim to make it.
posted by squeak at 9:42 AM on April 30, 2016

yes but will they smell of chip butty
posted by poffin boffin at 9:45 AM on April 30, 2016

Too political, when we should be celebrating scientists. Franklin and Turing come to mind as worthy.

I heartily endorse this suggestion to put legendary scientist Benjamin Franklin on currency. Is there a £68 note?

Rosalind, right?
posted by Huffy Puffy at 10:41 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure rags-to-riches was just a reference to someone going from poverty (like rag and bone men) to serious wealth, with the bit about rags being literally turned into cash being a nice coincidental just-so story that isn't really related to the phrase.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 12:16 PM on April 30, 2016

The hubris and shortsightedness of making something as fundamentally disposable as a banknote out of plastic annoys me.

It's great that you're thinking ahead to the problems we'll have after the revolution. Or is there already a problem where you live with people littering the streets with useless old banknotes?
posted by sfenders at 12:23 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Multicellular Exothermic: "people criticise them because the notes stick together when they are new, and melt when you leave them in a hot car."

Ya, NO. The notes have a melting point of around 280F/140C; if your car interior manages to get to that point you've got more serious problems like the coolant in your heater core boiling off.
posted by Mitheral at 2:47 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

His death from cyanide in 1954 was judged to be suicide, but there is room for doubt about it and it may have been an accident.

There is a theory that he may have been murdered by Britain's own security services (a security risk, can't have him where the Soviets could blackmail him, terribly regrettable, and so on).
posted by acb at 3:06 PM on April 30, 2016

I wonder what aromas the British ones will have. Fish & chips? Tea? Quiet desperation?

The £5 will smell of rancid fried chicken grease, the £10 of Sunday roast gravy, and the £20 of Pimm's and lemonade.
posted by acb at 3:07 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

AFAICT the dollar coin is still in production. People just seem to prefer not to use it.

I maintain that $1 coins will only catch on when they become as chunky/substantial as the English Pound coin and cease resembling quarters.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:18 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

I always wanted to get a leather pouch, fill it with Sacajawea dollars, and go spend my gold coins at a Renaissance Faire.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:31 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've been told by more than one person that people in the SCA were delighted when we moved to the loonie. (Canadian $1 coin, has a loon on the reverse, Her Maj on the obverse as usual for all our coinage, coin is gold-coloured.)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:57 PM on April 30, 2016

I maintain that $1 coins will only catch on when they become as chunky/substantial as the English Pound coin and cease resembling quarters.

The problem with dollar coins in the US is that they're freaking gigantic, weighting the same as five quarters. If they scaled them down to no larger than quarters, I'd be all for them.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 4:00 PM on April 30, 2016

It appears that old Australian polymer notes are turned into compost bins and other things after they are too mangled to use as money.

New Zealand has had polymer notes since 1999. They also have a brief video on the lifestyle of a note. Scroll down a little for the video.
posted by poxandplague at 5:06 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Australia's had these for a while. It's like spending money in lego land! And they're goofy colours; the blue-tongue (10), red-back (20), pineapple (50).

I've never heard the 20 called anything but a lobster.

The polymer notes are fine, but they can sometimes be kind of springy, and prone to leaping out of your hand or wallet (even more than the non polymer kind, that is).
posted by glitter at 5:13 PM on April 30, 2016

The problem with dollar coins in the US is that they're freaking gigantic, weighting the same as five quarters. If they scaled them down to no larger than quarters, I'd be all for them.

Huh? A quarter weighs 5.670g, the dollar coins are 8.1g. The dollar coins are just over 2mm in diameter bigger than a quarter and 0.25mm thicker.

The Eisenhower dollar was a monster, though.

(And I'd heard it was the vending machine manufacturers that were one of the hold ups for dollar coin adoption, but I have no citation for that.)
posted by jimw at 5:25 PM on April 30, 2016

Big paper is the key paper dollar lobby lead by Georgia Pacific who supplies all the paper used by the US for bills. The big lobbyist on the coin side are Mining companies.
posted by Mitheral at 5:48 PM on April 30, 2016

Crap, I didn't bother to actually read my google results and confused the normal dollar coins with the big commemorative ones. Apologies! [They're still too big.]
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:25 PM on April 30, 2016

The UK won't have the same problem Canada does: on very cold days the plastic bills can easily slide out of a pocket if you're expecting friction to hold them in place. Cold temperatures seem to render the polymer very slick and they eel around against each other. But what I dislike most about the bills is probably a feature, not a bug: they don't hold a fold.
posted by zadcat at 9:36 PM on April 30, 2016

AFAICT the dollar coin is still in production. People just seem to prefer not to use it.
The dollar coin and half dollar are only produced in limited numbers for collectors. The stockpiles of them sitting in Fed vaults are more than sufficient for current usage. Even if a revolution in coin habits saw their circulation increase dramatically the Mint would have plenty of lead time to ramp up production.

Re: size of Eisenhower dollars
As we all know the dime, quarter, and half dollar are sized relative to each other. A quarter is 2.5 times larger in volume than a dime, and a half is twice the size of a quarter. The dimensions of the Eisenhower dollar are based on the old silver dollars, which are actually slightly larger than twice the size of a half dollar.
posted by clorox at 11:21 PM on April 30, 2016

I'm pretty sure rags-to-riches was just a reference to someone going from poverty (like rag and bone men) to serious wealth,

I'd rather know definitively one way or the other rather than be pretty sure, but I don't have the time to try and research with what I do know. I'd love to get lost down the rabbit hole of history instead, but yesterday I had one hive robbing another problematic hive ... I wasn't expecting a casual comment turning into doing homework.
posted by squeak at 3:19 AM on May 1, 2016

pseudostrabismus: You follow in the footsteps of the intrepid amateur scientists who set out to determine if the centre of the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toonie could in fact be punched out.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:20 AM on May 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

The new Canadian polymer notes don't fold; they form a sort of lazy loop designed to eject from a wallet. They become noticeable stiffer in the cold, and it's much easier to get a few stuck together.

But at least they don't absorb biofluids.
posted by scruss at 8:45 AM on May 1, 2016

I really like the Canadian polymer bills. Always nice, crisp, and clean. It surprised me how long it took Canada to switch, given that Australia had so many years ago. I now find it disgusting to use ratty paper bills when I visit a country that still has them.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:15 AM on May 2, 2016