A former employee of the business I work for (who retired a few years back) informed me that she wanted to change some money and get $10 bills.  She was informed she had to use the ATM.  She tried to argue her point, even to the extent that the ATM didn't have $10 bills - but it went nowhere.  I was informed it was a Scotiabank branch she dealt with.  And this was before the introduction of "select cash" ATMs, plus a few years before the ongoing pandemic.

There may be a logical explanation for this new trend.  It may likely be designed to eliminate long lines and make services more efficient.  I may even bring up that cash transactions for over-the-counter services may require an amount larger than the maximum for a single ATM transaction (in the case of Scotiabank, $1,000).

I notice that there have been more bank customers at the ATMs than inside the branch, but COVID-19 restrictions could be the reason why.  I am thinking this may be a permanent thing, pandemic or no pandemic.

I'd say, whatever number of staff exist in a branch right now, that number will be permanent even after the pandemic.  Over-the-counter transactions will likely have restrictions in which cash withdrawals will have to be a significantly large amount, otherwise the ATM is the route to go.

If bank policies are changing in which smaller cash withdrawals have to be strictly ATM only, and the trend that $10 bills are no longer being dispensed from ATMs, this could be the beginning of the end of our $10 bill as we know it, and may result in people hoarding tens - in case the day comes that they become scarce like the U.S. $2 bill (again, I do not draw comparison to our 50¢ coin because that denomination is long-defunct from general circulation).

Of course, it could be possible that there could be no more cash held inside bank branches (teller wicket, or secured cash dispensers), and all of the branch's money could likely be held in the ATMs on a perpetual basis.  At least that could bring the number of bank robberies down in some form.

Interesting and surprising article!  Thanks for sharing.. Murray

No stories to tell and just wanted to say I enjoy your posts and all the finds

Saw media reports on CTV News about how dirty our Bank of Canada polymer notes are!

Here’s the study that the media quoted from:

https://www.gambling.com/us/casino-cash?utm_source=vancouver%20is%20awesome&utm_campaign=vancouver%20is%20awesome&utm_medium=referral

I’ll be laundering money. 

Here are a couple of notes that lived hard lives.

The 1954 $1 is extensively worn but what makes it interesting is that it has a date written on it; 3-23-73 or March 23 1973 and it has a lot of wallet trauma.  Perhaps this note was somebody’s lucky dollar?  I also know that some people carry a dollar bill to represent their “last dollar” and it means that they will never be truly penniless.  There is also the tradition of giving a token amount of money with a new wallet.

The second 1954 $1 was used as note paper.  A teller must have counted out 78 notes in the pile and wrote it down.

The 1954 $2 has lived a very hard life; it is heavily soiled but I wonder how it survived being sent back…Maybe it too was somebody’s “lucky” money.

June 16 finds part 2:

My pickup from the second bank of the day was less impressive but interesting in its own way.  The teller told me that the person who deposited the notes “didn’t even take them out of the plastic”.  Most of the notes are in clear plastic sleeves and this lot was most likely deposited by a collector who is paring down the lower grade “spenders “ out of his collection.

The highlight of this lot was a 1954 $5 note.

Enjoy!

June 16th finds…part 1

I managed to get a whole slew of notes from two banks.

The first bank yielded a wide assortment of notes; from 1954 modified all the way up to a couple of journey notes.  The highlights of this lot were several birds $2 in AU, two 1973 $1 replacement notes, a birthday note (1911983…January 19, 1983) and a 1954 $1000 note.

Of course, the $1000 note has two staple holes in it.  I have a feeling that tellers used to staple $1000 notes together when they were received to prevent losing them.  I have seen several $1000 notes that have been stapled and it is not common to see staple holes in other denominations.

Part 2 follows…

I was blown away by this lot…24 uncirculated multicoloured $1 notes, 16 of which are the BFC prefix.  The neat thing about these notes is that someone saved pairs of notes so the second last digit of the serial number is 0, 1, 2,3,…all the way to 9.

From experience I've learnt that when you see unc notes and they have a repeating skip pattern then its usually come from an estate settlement or some such divining up of the collection. In this case, the person doing the diving would divide up the pile by doling out two to each of the recipients of which I would guess there were 5 at this event.

I've seen this and had a few occasions where each of the recipients eventually came in after the settlement of a will and I was able to reconstitute the bundle or the run of notes.

Pm'ed

-Great finds & thanks for keeping us posted.

I have a feeling that many collections are being emptied out as the pandemic rages on and some people have no choice but to cash in notes that they have held on to for decades for only face value.

-I'm sure you right- in that these older series you're getting must be from collections or SDB or someone who was about to start a collection. It could also be a parent of a departed university student (spring clean up), a partner (etc) of someone who would never see them as collectible who's depositing them. To those who don't collect, "it's only money." 

Yesterday, I thought I'd try my luck with a friendly teller at my branch & asked if he had any banknotes returned (paper) recently and of course the answer was 'no.'  As I left, I was a bit shocked that one of the customer service reps overheard me & then offered to call me if she had anything come in.  I doubt it will actually materialize, but it was a nice gesture (the thought that counts). I'm still working on trying to get some of the staff to help out but its been an uphill battle with so many new staff (high turn-over rate).

And today, I took out 50 Tens and one was FFC 6666966 (near solid) & the other a repeater so I was pretty happy with that (as I can go months without anything).