Even Borden is rocking the 'stache for Movember.

The Bank of Canada is getting rid of its paper money, and I couldn’t be more excited. I can’t wait until its replacement, plastic polymer money, starts getting fully phased in and I don’t have to worry about sending my bills through the washing machine and losing $20. Don’t worry; the plastic ones won’t melt in the dryer either.

Of course, that’s not the only reason I’m excited. I worked in retail for six years, and now make a good chunk of change hawking my wares at craft shows and nerd conventions, and paper currency has its problems. Polymer money is being introduced to counteract all the annoyances of paper currency.

The new polymer notes will be more durable, and won’t rip or tear in half like paper money. Ripped money is a pain, especially if you are a cashier. No one wants the bills and they have to be set aside so whoever does cash-out can remember to return it to the bank. It also won’t crumple and resist lying flat, although you can still fold the polymer notes if you try.

This all means that the polymer bills will be able to stay in circulation longer. The current average lifespan of a $10 bill is only six months. Polymer bills will save the government an estimated $200 million dollars a year just by lasting longer, which will hopefully go toward a better use in the future.

Polymer bills are also a lot harder to counterfeit. Currently, the Bank of Canada measures that there are about 470 counterfeit bills for every million legal bills in circulation. This has a very adverse effect on Canadians because many businesses no longer accept $100 or even $50 bills.

But new security features of polymer bills will make it easier to confirm their legitimacy. Cashiers are generally too rushed to do a full check on bills (which gets them into trouble later). When I’m at a craft show, the lighting isn’t usually good enough to check for the hidden image on a paper bill. This won’t be a problem with the new polymer bills, which have many, easy-to-check security features including two clear windows, raised ink in several places, and metallic ink that changes colour when you change the angle at which you view the bill.

To avoid mass panic and confusion, the new polymers are being phased in slowly, starting with the most counterfeited, the $100 bill, this November. The new $50 polymer bill will be introduced in March of 2012, and the $20, $10 and $5 bills will be introduced over the course of 2013.

Canada is hardly pioneering the phasing out of cotton paper bills. Australia has been using them since 1988, and Mexican peso bills are also made of plastics.

I’m hoping that by being plastic, these bills are not only more secure but also cleaner — since the plastic has fewer pores to absorb all the germs that usually accompany handling money. At the same time, I’m also going to be setting aside a few paper bills for collection purposes. They might be worth some money someday.

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Image: Bank of Canada