Shortage of Canada $50 bank notes and Bank of Canada Research

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Hello fellow collectors.

I saw this article (woh video) in BNN Bloomberg website:

There's a shortage of $50 bills in Canada after pandemic hoarding

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/there-s-a-shortage-of-50-bills-in-canada-after-pandemic-hoarding-1.1462381

Staff Discussion Paper from the Bank of Canada (published July 2, 2020):

Cash and COVID-19: The impact of the pandemic on the demand for and use of cash
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/sdp2020-6.pdf

How Canadians Pay for Things
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2019/10/how-canadians-pay-for-things/

Very interesting.

Thanks for the info!  It is interesting.  Murray

And one would think that there'd be a shortage of $100 bills as well.  Very bizarre that there is a shortage of $50s, but not $100s as well.

The largest reason I could think why the 50's are mainly affected is because of ATM's. Almost no ATM's dispense $100 notes other than a few new scotiabank ones and ones at the casino's. Even when you go to a teller at a bank, they mainly give you $50's unless you request $100's.

The new RBC machines give you $5-$100 notes

Here is another article that was published today on the 50$ bill shortage.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bank-of-canada-faces-shortage-of-50-bills-due-to-pandemic-hoarding-1.5042848

There's no mention of ATMs possibly contributing to it but I have to agree with others who have posted that the ATMs could play a role.  While most now give you a choice of denominations compared to a few years ago, the 100$ is still not an option for many of them.  If more people are taking out large sums of money for hoarding reasons, they will likely pick higher denominations.  When most ATMs highest choice is the 50, it follows that they will run out quicker.

Interestingly, when you get to the bottom, there's a picture of a 50$ polymer note, supposedly taken March 26, 2012.  The note is AMK 0244904 with the plate number obscured by the hand.  Looking at the SNDB, this would make it only the sixth "reported" note and a new high for the prefix. 

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of $50 bills in Newfoundland - at least, closer to where I live.  I went to an ATM yesterday afternoon, and I took money out of the newer Scotiabank ATM, and it did dispense $50 bills (I received a couple, along with a $100 bill, which was the default option).  So there seems to be no shortage of $50s and $100s to report in my province.

I am thinking the shortage and hoarding of larger denominations may only prevail in major provinces like Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, and maybe it is due to lockdowns in many of those provinces.  Maybe not so much in Atlantic Canada, and by definition of lockdown, it didn't prevail in my province.  Makes sense, since Newfoundland had very few cases (fewer than 300 at this time), and last I read, there are four active cases, all in the lower-populated central region, and none in the Avalon region which is the highest populated region.