Shortage of 10s circulating

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

You mean to say your mother never or very rarely received $10s from a banking transaction? 

We only get 20s and sometimes 50s from banking transactions, though she is not a collector, and it appears the only way to get tens from a bank are to request them. If you saw that I had a $10 denominational set, the Journey 10 was the second-to last to get.

I mentioned this to a member already but I should reiterate it for everyone here too.

 My local branches have just run out of Tens including circulated notes. My regular bank had put up a sign "SORRY, NO TENS." last Friday when I came in with my brick of tens to deposit.  I can tell you the tellers were happy to see me. I live just outside Vancouver and we have a fairly large Asian population here. With Chinese New Year coming around the corner this week Asians love get their hands on and give away crisp uncirculated cash as traditional gifts to relatives and friends. They really want Uncirculated Tens or Fifties if they were rich enough. Fifties are best for their Red and gold color to go with those little red and gold envelopes. It is most unfortunate most notes would have to be folded to be placed in these red envelopes.

Gung hey fat choy mon!

Being Chinese, Chinese New Year was the only reason why I even have those 10s.

We only get 20s and sometimes 50s from banking transactions, though she is not a collector, and it appears the only way to get tens from a bank are to request them.

Why do customers have to request them at that particular branch?  Are they that rare even at banks despite you living in Vancouver, and that city being a heavily populated one?  Isn't being forced to request such bills such an inconvenience to customers?

I can see why - the bank you are referring to may be located in a not-so-heavy traffic area.  With less customer traffic, there doesn't tend to be very much commercial and customer transactions.  And at a branch that involves heavier traffic, the more commercial and customer transactions involved, the quicker it will take to accumulate 1,000 $10 notes deemed unfit for circulation, and the branches with higher volumes of customer traffic can order crisp $10s more frequently than at a less busy branch.

Banks may have policies that they can only order new notes when they accumulate 1,000 or more worn out bills.  If the branch doesn't get enough traffic (like say, in a smaller community), they don't order the infrequently used banknotes, as it would be a waste of the branch's money that they could have spent on additional $5s and $20s - both of which have much higher demand.

As I have said before, you'll have a much better chance if you go to a branch in a busy shopping mall that deals with tons of commercial transactions.  They'll be most probable to order crisp $10s and all other denominations.  Lucky for me, despite the slightly lower volume of traffic, the Scotiabank I deal with in my neighbourhood does order $10s - though they only receive bricks of crisp $10s about 2 or 3 times annually, or if lucky enough, maybe 4 times per year.  The branch is fortunate enough to order $10s, and I respect that.  I also respect the fact that they get enough commercial and regular customers to be able to order $10s (recycled or crisp).

I'm very grateful that the Scotiabank I deal with even orders $10s.  The Scotiabank doesn't even have to order $10s - they can discontinue ordering such bills at any time.  And I just bet there are some Scotiabank branches out there that don't even order bills of such denomination.

Honestly, I don't know. I just plain don't know what my local RBC's policies are. For some reason, here, they are showing up in circulation, but not from the banks. I'm not entirely sure that if you withdraw $15 from them using a teller if they will give you 3 5s or 2 5s and a 10. However, I have noticed that there does not appear to be a shortage in the last couple of months. If there is a shortage here, then my BTP that I got from circulation begs to differ. I have no clue because the bank I'm referring to is in the middle of Richmond city centre and gets a significant amount of traffic. Maybe they're just frugal or something. When I said that you have to request 10s, I suspect that I said one sentence too soon and made an assumption. 

It really is weird how different banks (especially RBC) do not order $10s.  You would think the BoC would set a mandatory rule that all major bank corporations across Canada have to order $10s no matter what.  They're not frequently used, but they are not as extensive as $100s and $50s.  $10s are the second smallest denomination in existence today.  Maybe all RBC branches across the country have a strict policy that they have to be consistent across the country when it comes to ordering certain denominations.  From what I heard about a certain RBC branch, it doesn't even order $5s let alone $10s.  And the secured cash dispenser onsite at that branch (possibly most if not all branches) do not get loaded with any $10s.  Even though they do not order $5s, they still load them into the dispensers since they are way more frequented than the others (next in line to $20s) - not to mention the majority of the $5s in existence are circulated.

The RBC may be considered the "weakest link" when it comes to ordering $10s.  If I am not mistaken, the Scotiabank is the "strongest link" when it comes to ordering such denominations.  If I were to rank two banks that deal heavily in ordering $10s, Scotiabank would be #1, followed by TDCT.  But those theories may be considered a stereotype, so please correct me if I'm mistaken.

After all, if more banks discontinued ordering $10s, what's the point in having such banknote in circulation?

I'm not entirely sure that if you withdraw $15 from them using a teller if they will give you 3 5s or 2 5s and a 10.

Just a clarification here:  2 $5s and a $10 make $20, not $15. 

One other thing I would like to mention...

I heard that many cashiers do not keep a lot of $10s in their drawers for security reasons.  In 1988, there were lots in the tills, but now there seems to be little to zero at all.

What on earth would a prospective robber want with $10s?  People would think they would target mostly $50s and $100s - unless there are robbers stupid enough to even care for a relatively small denomination that is not frequently used.

Is it possible that robbers mainly target infrequently used bills let alone $20s or $5s?

One other thing I would like to mention...

I heard that many cashiers do not keep a lot of $10s in their drawers for security reasons.  In 1988, there were lots in the tills, but now there seems to be little to zero at all.

What on earth would a prospective robber want with $10s?  People would think they would target mostly $50s and $100s - unless there are robbers stupid enough to even care for a relatively small denomination that is not frequently used.

Is it possible that robbers mainly target infrequently used bills let alone $20s or $5s?

Robbers will take what they can get- although the prcise case of my theft situation, ALL TENS they stole.   That was a good reason why I was able to trace it.

They will take what they can- no tens , means no tens wil be stolen.  All tens, means all tens will be stolen.

Only the sound of the reggae music played rhythm against the quiet dreary evening.  A scruffy man was in the store for a long time considering just choosing a bag of chips and a carton of milk. He placed them by the till as he surveyed the shelves behind the counter. His rather ordinary dark glasses, the baseball cap tilted down, his hands in his pockets. The only other customer let the door close behind him as he stepped into his car and drove into the late night. The scruffy man pushed a crumpled up $5 note towards the clerk.
“Good evening mon, will dat be all?” said the clerk as he rang the items before bagging them.
The man pulled out a small pistol from his pocket and pointed it a few inches from the clerk’s nose, “Yes you doped up fool…you can put ALL the money in the bag too.”
The clerk hesitated a moment then smiled, “No problem boss, do you want da tens too?”
“What do you mean? Yes the tens too!”
“I’m glad to hear dat mon I like to promote da use of tens, they are only a teeny demand now a days.”
“Shut up and finish the job!”
“Okay mon, my friends and I appreciate you use da tens.”
The scruffy man just grunted and waved the barrel of the gun in front of the clerk’s nose again.
“Dey is my favorite bills wit da purple and me favorite Prime Minisi…”
“Are you nuts?” cried the scruffy man.
“Many sorries mon, I don have enough tens for you.”
“Stuff in some of those cigarettes too!”
"Really? Not good for you mon, I know where you can get good ganga."
"Get stuffing that money?"
“Holy Moely mon, a 2003 BER ten, I wanna keep dis one. Dose is a hackle to find mon.”
“In the bag you idiot!”
“Wait, I gets me wallet. I give you my last two fives.”
“Come on hurry up!”
“I know a guy like you would like bran criss new $5 bills too. Anyting else mon?”
"Gimme the bag!" Screamed the scruffy man as he grabbed the bag and bolted to the door.
"Irie mon, cum again!"

In the 21st edition of the Charlton Standard, 2003 BERs are only worth from $100 in VF to $700 in GUnc.  Maybe BEL.

The two BER notes in the CNA auction today went for $1700 and $2300 resepectively, for PCGS Unc-68 and Unc-69, Wonder if the buyers will be upset when they see the new Charlton...


Fenian

I know my local Credit Union loves 10's.  I think their policy is to always give out at least one ten whenever possible.  You can take out $10, but if you get $20, you get 2 10's, $40 is 2 10's and a 20 and it goes up from there.  Btw, all the 10's from their machine are always new in sequential order.  It's currently my ownly source for new 10's.

Guess you could tell if there was a shortage of ten's if you orderd a brick and the bank could not get you one for 4 weeks or so?
Maybe they are in the process of doing changes again, like when they pulled the old ten's and replaced them with the more secure ones.

Maybe they are in the process of doing changes again, like when they pulled the old ten's and replaced them with the more secure ones.

Or maybe the BoC is determining the future of our $10 bill already?  If so, the fate of our $10 bill may be approaching us sooner than we could realize; and with Canada heading into a recession, demand for our $10 bill is going to take a majorly deep plunge in the coming months.

I know my local Credit Union loves 10's.  I think their policy is to always give out at least one ten whenever possible.  You can take out $10, but if you get $20, you get 2 10's, $40 is 2 10's and a 20 and it goes up from there.  Btw, all the 10's from their machine are always new in sequential order.  It's currently my ownly source for new 10's.

if you don't mind me asking, what city/town are you in?    it's been a long time since I've seen a machine give out 10's,

Flin Flon, Manitoba.  It's actually the newest machine in town.

it's been a long time since I've seen a machine give out 10's

Many Scotiabank ATMs in Atlantic Canada used to dispense $10s back in the 1990s.  Due to continuously declining demand (which is still occurring to this day) and the possibility of making the machines last longer, the $10s were pulled around 1998.  The RBC pulled the $5s from at least 90% of their ATMs early this decade for the same reason - though the $5 bill had much greater demand at that time and is still increasing to this day.

One Scotiabank ATM did dispense $10s when a local shopping mall had one installed in a cinema complex back in 1999.  The $10s were removed just before Christmas 2002 (possibly because people were withdrawing $10 only at times and was causing a burden of expenses for the branch?), and the Scotiabank ATM followed suit and was replaced shortly afterward with an independently owned ATM that dispenses nothing but $20s.

Last I remembered, the HSBC branch where I live dispensed $10s, but I am not certain if they do now.