Some Observations on the $10 Commemorative Notes

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It seems like we are going to have Raised Ink (Intaglio ) on the front and the back.

There is tremendous amount of strategic change to the visual design of the front and the back. I believe this is the first Canadian note with multiple portraits on the front. I also believe that this is the first note where the back is not a single composite vignette but consists of 5 discrete vignettes.

I believe it is the first time that we are seeing the inside of the parliament buildings on any of the BoC notes.

Although the visual design has undergone tremendous change the "form factor" has stayed the same. By form factor I mean the elements that are related to the general organization and placement of major elements that would affect the printing process:

the metallic stripe  appears to be the same size and at the same location as the location of the stripe in the rest of the polymer notes.
the tactile feature appears to be at the same location as the other polymer notes.
the serial numbers appear to be at the same location as the other polymer notes.
the code for the blind note reader is still maintained and at the same locations as the polymer notes.

(I would think therefore that all the covert security features that include machine readable features have remained unchanged)

So essentially the change involves using different intaglio plates (for front and back raised inks) and different litho plates (which of course are very major changes from a visual content point of view but not necessarily affecting the security recognition of the notes by machines)

There are at least three incremental changes to recognizable security elements that we could expect to continue in the new series:

Use of colour shifting ink
Use of raised ink on the back
Use of 3D looking image on the metallic stripe

Some observations on the communication strategy used by the BoC

The interactive "explore the New $10 Note" has been brought to a totally new level. Being able to go from the image of the note to the google map location of the geographic features shown on the  notes for example is possibly the first.

The communication of the design and security features of the notes alongside the announcement of the new design have been highly co-ordinated. Some of the materials that have been made available by BoC for school children are sure to increase the awareness about:

Our History
Our Land
Our Culture

I believe this is the first Canadian note with multiple portraits on the front.

1935 $25!

I like the how blue-green shifting ink replaced the clear maple leaf. I'm sure hardly anyone knew how to use that security feature properly. I wonder how closely the series that will replace the Frontier series (it's only a year away) will resemble this note.

1935 $25!

Thx for pointing out the multiple portraits on 1935 $25. I guess the use on $10 commemorative makes it the second time.

One other thing that appears to be unique is the multi-colour intaglio. I don't believe it has been used in Bank of Canada notes before. The back intaglio is in different colours and the front intaglio appears to be varying shade in the signatures and the "Canada" at the top. I don't believe the multi-colour series had multi-colour intaglio.

The intaglio engraving pattern for the counter "10" on the face brings back memories of the journey series where the counter was filled with maple leaf symbol and now it is "BANK OF CANADA BANQUE DU CANADA"

Just spent a good portion of the afternoon visiting four TD Bank branches.

The first allowed me to have 10 notes - CDA prefix
The second allowed me to have 5 notes - CDB prefix
The third allowed me to have 10 notes - CDC prefix
The fourth allowed me to have as many as I wanted - got 25 notes - CDC prefix

Aside from the intaglio engraving on the back there is a large square  just above the 10 and to the left.
I too am pleased that the B.O.C. has finally given this side of the note equal recognition in security features.

The green and copper colours are a nice touch as well and though the plate numbers are the same on both sides they are in different locations than the Frontier series.

Sorry I also meant to mention that Agnes MacPhail is technically now the first Canadian Woman on a B.O.C. note which kind of makes me wonder why they chose her after making such a fuss about Viola Desmond.

Taking a look at strap information on the CDD bundle vis-a-vis the strap information on CDA, CDB and CDC seems to give some unusual information:

Date of CDD strap is June 12, 2017

Date of CDA strap ranges from mid to late April to early May

Date on CDC and CDB seems to be mostly early May with some exceptions

Below 1 million numbered CDA is included in the same brick as CDC and dated in May

Several branches that I talked to received additional bricks of 150-$10 recently. They did not even order them.
It is interesting to note that none of the branches I visited, which have note readable machines to which they normally feed the notes, can put these notes in the machine. The machines do not recognize them. This despite the fact that the same banks ATMs recognize these notes when they are deposited. It appears that there is a magic date in early August when these machines will be programmed to accept the notes. The information I am getting is that this change will be electronically downloaded to these machines.

Many of the banks that normally do not hold cash and put everything in the machines are kind of stuck making provisions to hold these notes separately. One branch did not want to keep the notes in the treasury and returned it to the place they normally return their access cash.

I am sure there some story to the distribution of these 150-$10 notes. All the bank employees are reluctant to share any information. It would seem that they have been advised to. The most interesting is to me is the CDD strap date of June 12, 2017. That is after the official release of these notes. The next most interesting thing is the CDC and CDA in the same bundle and brick.

This kind of begs the question - Since in the public photos of the release of these notes one can see CDF prefix - were these printed for field trials or for selective release before CDD's? I have some compelling evidence that BSW might have been printed and circulated prior to the other BS- prefixes. Also there is some evidence that high numbered FTG's might have been printed with FEW to FEZ.

Unless of course there are some other theories to explain CDD's with June 12, 2017 strap and CDF's seen in public photos of the release in April.

All I can find is CDA and CDB.
Have been offered a brick but it is a CDB.

Will have to check some branches again to see if a new shipment has arrived.

More Canadian government dual-portrait notes: 1866 Province of Canada $20, 1870 Dominion of Canada $2, 1887 DoC $2, 1897, 1898 DoC $1, 1900, 1902 DoC $4, 1911 $1, 1914 DoC $2, 1918 & 1924 DoC $50,000.

A Bank employee was nice enough to give me this info sheet on the 150 note.

A Bank employee was nice enough to give me this info sheet on the 150 note.

Cool.

Received 20 CDE prefixes today.  Happily entered six of them in the SNDB today (1st one to do so!)

Noticed what appears to be a a faint ink smear on a few of the notes between th 5th and 6th digit, otherwise nothing different from any of the other notes previously obtained.

Noticed what appears to be a a faint ink smear on a few of the notes between th 5th and 6th digit

Any chance you can post a picture?

Also are you able to share the bundle strap information? BOC BDC -------

you able to share the bundle strap information? BOC

I got a few bundles of CDD that were dated June 13 2017

I got a bundle of CDE dated June 20 2017

Most of the bundles followed the same pattern of decreasing position numbers.  Position numbers typically change at the 99th or sometimes the 49th note. Sometimes there is a discrepancy- but I believe its a bank employee taking out radars and replacing the gap with notes from another nearby bundle (because that's always where the discrepancy occurs). I think also there has been a big jump in position numbers which I believe represents a cut in the brick, or jump to a new brick. And then there are random gaps of missing notes too- as observed by others.

Any chance you can post a picture?  Also are you able to share the bundle strap information?

Sorry I don't have a reliable scanner so I didn't respond right away.

I have two left and spent or traded the rest thinking it would be too minor to catalogue.  Hope this helps:

CDE0268111 & 112 plate #19 have a tiny faint purple smudge between the 5th and 6th digit.

This tiny horizontal mark seems to connect the serifs of the 1s on the left serial # only.

Oh and in case anyone's wondering the CDE's I got came in at least 3 or 4 different number ranges and only those close to the ones mentioned below had the marks.

I only kept five for my collection both without smudges and stamped the rest.  Three of them were traded at the Paris show this past Sunday for CDB and CDD notes.