To the Editor,
The Bank of Canada has issued new format paper money in a bid to foil counterfeiters.
But in it’s newly issued state it could, maybe already has, become a big loser for Canadian consumers. I have witnessed a few transactions where the purchaser unwittingly tries to pay two or three times the cost of items selected in their shopping carts.
In one situation, a shopper had selected nearly fifty dollars worth of goods and gave the cashier what she thought was a fifty dollar bill.
But the cashier, probably already aware of the poorly formed bills, carefully separated what was actually three 50 dollar bills.
I later told a clerk at another store checkout counter about this.
I then paid for my own purchase with a new twenty dollar bill, which the clerk promptly pulled apart to reveal two twenties.
She then showed me why the bills stuck together. Touching the sides of the twenty revealed a light adhesive.
The Bank of Canada may foil the counterfeiters, but until they stop circulating “sticky” bills, the consumer is the loser.
Harold Hamilton,
Port Alberni