When will it stop :)

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Over the past few weeks I have had so many damaged polymers given to me at the banks, at retail stores as change and even in the atms.
Seems like people have nothing better to do than to test how well these notes take abuse of very unlikely daily occurences.
Tears/rips/cigarette burns/melting/wierd and scary stains/holes etc. only to name a few
I assume people will eventually accept the fact that most thing can be destroyed if you try hard enough
The best one yet was one I found with the entire perimeter hole punched with writing on it saying "the dollar store was closed and I needed some confetti"
Anyone else find any neat ones?

I am ALWAYS getting new polymer for 20's - I never got damaged 20's ... yet.

50's and 100's are almost everytime prestine also when I go to the bank but if they aren't, they show a lot of folding... I saw one 50's once - I think he was fold enough to fit under 1CM x 1CM box... !

I've seen quite a few damaged polymer 20s from ATMs so far. One bank branches ATMs I visit only has polymer 20s, but they're used ones.

I've gotten quite a few notes with missing pieces, tears and I've even gotten one note that was ripped in half in the middle and taped back together very poorly (the person didn't even bother aligning both pieces.) I've also seen plenty notes with "stretch" marks on the margins showing that people tried to rip the notes, or notes that are significantly crumpled.

$100s and $50s I get my hands on though are typically in very good shape.

I got 10 $50's and 10 $100's the other day.  All have multiple hard folds in them.

The owner of the dep near me places a hard fold in the corner of every polymer note he gets so that he can count them at the end of the day.

I have seen many polymers but nothing with the kind of damage others have seen. I have seen three torn notes so far, no holes or such. Even the torn notes do not appear to be deliberate but caused because of an apparent defect.

Maybe people in some part of our great country have enough time and money on their hands to do all weird things to the poor $100 bills

Interesting article from CTV News:

Melting Canadian polymer notes -
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/tales-of-melting-money-a-matter-of-national-security-boc-suggests-1.1097633

Thanks for the link Coinsplus (interesting read).

Re: original thread:
I thought you guys were exaggerating about the crumpled polymers. Then took out $300 with 2 $50 from an ATM and both $50 looked like they were crumpled into a ball.

Are we being hard on people about mistreating polymer notes? I have really not run into anyone who willfully tries to do anything to the polymer notes that they would not have done to the other notes.

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that no one is willfully abusing notes.

But could it be that the polymer notes have some inherent things that cause them to get creased real fast?

As an example - I gave someone some real crisp polymer notes. They put them in their wallet. The wallet design is such that it has a smaller width and just about holds the polymer notes. In two days of keeping them in the wallet and keeping the wallet in their back pocket the notes were so much wrinkled at the fold of the wallet that it shocked me. I have never seen such wrinkling with paper money.

It is also very common to fold notes in fourths i.e. one centre fold followed by an additional fold. This is to fit the notes in many of the ladies money purses. Try doing that with polymers and putting them in the purses for a few days and taking them out and straightening them.

It is widely recognized that polymer notes do not fold well and that they do not regain their shape well once folded. I think it likely creates all kinds of problems for people who are trying to put money in a rush into their pockets, wallets, purses etc.

No doubt the reports of crumpled notes are real but I do not think it is all attributable to willful damage.

I have posted a photo on this forum of a note with a cut which cannot be explained by someone cutting with a sharp object. I still believe that there are some issues with the polymer notes that is causing the cuts. I have many examples of delaminations of the notes. If I knew of a person to send them to at BoC I would.


Disclosure: I have no affiliation with any type of entity that supplies any type of paper to the banking industry. I am just a small time human who is intrigued by the many differences in design between the old paper money and the polymer money.

Just as with anything new, people test things...and when they read in media or news reports, people will try testing them in harsh conditions.

I still remember when the new twoonies got rolled out in 1996, people were saying that the cores were falling out, etc. 

The biggest complaint I hear is that they stick together.  I don't find this.

There's a country (I forget which one) that converted to polymer only to go back to paper due to a massive outcry.  Wonder if we'll see that here.

I wonder how much of it is being driven by paper  v/s polymer lobby. From what I read it appears that polymer (read securency) substrate has had a long monopolistic run. Being partly owned by the Australian Government certainly helps the cause.

Only recently are there viable competing technologies for alternative substrates in polymer.

There was a nice article in the CPMS journal that was based on discussion with an Australian (it being the first country to have a widespread launch of polymers) note dealer Trevor Wilkin (web site: http://www.polymernotes.com/intro.html)

Essentially Mr. Wilkin seemed to suggest that for the polymers to be collectible they would have to be taken off the production line because otherwise they tend to crease and fold real fast.

The claims in regard to life of polymer being long refer not to its propensity to crease and fold faster than paper  but to the more damaging aspect to longevity of notes soiling, tearing and other deterioration. In this regard polymer notes come out much ahead of paper (technically cotton).

The article in the CPMS journal is worth reading.