I went to my local TD Canada Trust to pay my line of credit and gave them a bunch of current Journey 20s and I had one older $100. A lot of the tellers there seem quite young, the girl I was dealing with was maybe 20-21 years old. The note I gave her was a common series 1954 Beattie/Rasminski $100 note with a BJ prefix. Well she just looked at the note for quite sometime and then showed it to teller guy standing beside her and of course he was no older than her and they both said they have never seen this note before. Then she looked at it real close both back and front of the note and siad we can't accept this. I said why and she said since I haven't seen this note before I think it's counterfeit. I assured her it was real, but both the tellers refused to take the note unless they sent it away to be investigated before I'd get my $100 back. They looked at the note under the black light but I suspect they were looking for the typical "BANK OF CANADA" to be printed on the note under ultraviolet light, like what are found on the current Journey notes. Then they held the note up again to the light, again I suspect they were looking for a watermark or the security thread that runs through the note, like on the Journey series. Basically they were looking for security features found on the Journey notes that of course will not be present on the older series of notes like the 1954 and multi-colored notes.
Then I told her I would be back to show her the actual note in the Canadian Government Paper Money" catalog book. I came back 20 minutes later, showed her page 255 of the book with the same series 1954 $100 note with the Beattie/Rasminski signatures with the BJ prefix. Actually the note I was giving her was BJ6185027. The note was about VF condition, not worth keeping. But even after showing her the series 1954 notes in the book, plus the $100 notes in the series and older series notes. She still wouldn't take it. Then the younger teller guy who was standing beside her said, "this note looks counterfeit because you see the white boarder is not perfectly even around all the sides of the note, so this is a sure sign that the note could be counterfeit." Total idiot. Just because the note is not perfectly centered, it's gotta be a counterfeit! Is sort of what he is saying. Actually the bottom boarder of the note was a little narrower than the top margin of the note. I told him some notes will be off like that depending on how the sheets were cut. I said it is quite common for a lot of notes to be off a bit and not perfectly centered. I pulled out a couple of CDN Tire 5 cent notes and showed him how unven those boarders were as an example. On was printed or cut a bit high, the other printed or cut a bit off to the left. Both the backs and fronts of the notes were off center. Again I couldn't convince them. I said even U.S. notes have the same problem. I said well feel the engraved printing on the boarders of the note and the fine background print. I said the dots should glow under UV light. Nope still wouldn't take the note. They also said the note didn't feel right that it was rougher. Well the note was circulated so it will feel rough, plus the paper formulation isn't the same as what's in the Journey notes. Yes the Journey notes feel smoother, but that's due to the printing and the type of paper used. Again, you can't compare an older series note's feel and texture to that of the new Journey note's feel. It would be like comparing our new polymer notes that come out next year with the Journey notes of previous years. Or "this Journey note doesn't feel right, it's not printed on plastic so it must be fake." Then finally another teller came over looked at the note and said it's real. To the amazement of the other two tellers they must have thought "how could this be?" But the guy said yeah I've seen lots of these notes, 20's 50's 100s and even a $1000 note. So after the other guy said it was real, they finally took it but reluctantly. They still want to send it off to see if it comes back or not. I even told the guy jokingly, I'll bet you a $100 right now that it's real, he said no it's o.k.
Another problem is with the older Journey series 5s and 10s. The older ones didn't have the foil strips or the watermarks or they foil security thread running through the note and they didn't have the broken "5" or the "10" on the front and back of the notes that line up when you hold the note up to the light and there are some slight design changes in the notes. So again a lot of younger people who deal with money suspect that these notes are counterfeit notes because they lack the security features of the newer Journey 5 and 10 dollar notes.
I really think a lot of people are totally ignorant when it comes to our bank notes, especially the younger generation. These are people who work in stores and bank tellers. You give any 16 year old a dollar bill and they are totally messed up. I really think it would be a good idea for a lot of bank branches to get a copy of the Canadian Paper Money Catalog and educate their employees about older series of bank notes. For some reason a lot of younger people think that the Journey notes were the only currency design printed since Canada was formed as a country or notes used in the last 100 years or so. Being sarcastic here but in a way it seems like it at times. All I'm saying is, if people are handling or dealing with currency on a frequent basis, like a cashier or a bank clerk, they sould be better educated/informed about our paper money. They should be told that if they receive older Canadian money, it would most likely be from series 1937, 1954, 1970s multi-colored series, the bird series and older style $5/$10 Journey notes. Then they should be shown the notes in the catalog and be informed about the security features of the older notes. You can't expect very high tech security features of today's Journey notes with older style banknotes. I just though they were a bunch of dummies. Too bad all the older workers left for the day because they would remember the older notes and confirm that it was a real note. I'd probably have more people backing me up.
