Bank Of Canada Scraps Plan For $200 Bill
Posted August 20, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Bank of Canada has decided to scrap plans to print a $200 bill after a survey showed retailers strongly oppose the idea.
The central bank stopped printing the $1,000 bill in May 2000, hoping to foil money launderers and drug dealers who prefer to do business using large bills. Bank officials proposed a $200 note to replace it.
But in a survey of 2,000 retailers commissioned by the bank last winter, 59 percent said they didn’t like the idea of a $200 bill. Many respondents said they feared it would be counterfeited.
Criminals most often illegally reproduce the $10 and $20 notes, which account for 82 percent of counterfeits passed. The $100 bill accounts for about seven percent of bad notes.
“There’s still a big misconception among the public that higher denomination notes are the main target” of counterfeiters, bank spokeswoman Monica Lamoureux said.
“Obviously, there was strong opposition to it based on the survey results, so it’s not in the works.”
The highest circulating bill in the country is still the $100 note featuring a picture of former prime minister Sir Robert Borden.
The Bank of Canada regularly conducts surveys to gauge Canadians’ confidence in their currency. A poll last year suggested that 39 percent of Canucks expect to receive a fake bill – that’s up from 24 percent the year before.
