Talk:Polymer banknote

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Untitled[edit]

It is stated at a certain point in the article that the RBA developed polymer banknotes as a response to forgery. This is false; security was very much a secondary concern. The actual motivation was increased durability; there should be, or was, or something, a page on this, on the RBA website. I'll hunt it up at some point.

The Northern Irish polymer £5 note issued by the Northern Bank, although released only as a summer. --Garethhamilton 17:08, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I have added a footnote on this to the article which also mentions that this is the only note which will not be recalled by the bank after the raid on its HQ. (See Northern Bank for details of the robbery.) If you think this would be better suited to the main body of the text, please move it there! --Garethhamilton 13:23, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)


" The transparent window where the OCD is located in a key security feature of the polymer banknote, it is easily identifiable allowing anyone to be able to authenticate a banknote. " What does that mean? Is "OCD" meant to be "OVD". Should "located in" be "located is"? -- SGBailey 17:28, 2005 Jan 17 (UTC)


Let's hope Petaholmes, the original author, isn't pursuing a career in spelling.


This article states that holograms can't be incorporated in to paper notes surely that is not true? --Pcxbjh 21:40, 2005 Jan 17 (UTC)

I don't believe holograms can be printed directly onto the paper. However, it is true that a number of paper notes incorporate holograms. I believe this is generally through the use of a substrate that the hologram is "printed" on and then somehow afixed or incorporated into the paper. --Webgeer 23:53, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)
IIRC, the Swiss Francs that I saw in 2001 had holograms on them. Curiously enough, Australian notes don't have holograms; perhaps the RBA feels that microprinting, watermarking and the window is enough. The window is also embossed, at least on 10s and 20s. Alphax (t) (c) (e) 06:29, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

Trading as Securency the RBA with Innovia Films, a subsidiary of the UCB group, market BOPP as Guardian for countries with their own banknote printing facilities. Surely that should be without ? Wizzy 07:30, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

They offer a full service including printing the notes, but they also sell the polymer to counties that can print their own --nixie 02:08, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

upsides/downsides[edit]

Australian polymer notes have a texture to them and so are not as "slippery" as one might suppose. As with any currency, you just get used to their properties - that they don't fold etc. When I pull a $20 out of my wallet, I don't think "wow! A plastic note!"

Another upside is that they are not absorbent like paper and are less likely to act as disease vectors. They also are waterproof, survive the washing machine better, and don't continuously shed paper fibres. ........... Also because they resist crinkling they are very useful in vending machines, railway ticket machines, car parking machines, gambling 'slot' machines and so on that have note acceptors. They also look brand new for longer. On trips to the UK in particular, I'm always surprised by the poor condition of much of the banknote stock in circulation as well as the somewhat washed out and muted colour schemes. --MichaelGG (talk) 02:59, 17 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Disadvantages?[edit]

Presumably there are some disadvantages in using polymer bank notes or everyone else would have switched to them? --jmb 12:18, 13 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try putting one through a hot clothes drier or accidently using a hot iron they tend to melt. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.36.134.22 (talkcontribs) 06:31, 20 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Even so, polymer is still durable than paper for normal use. Perhaps it's because of anti-counterfeit devices? --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 03:05, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Cost would be the biggest disadvantage. Not just the cost of the material (the polymer is likely to be more expensive than the paper or cotton rag of other countries - although those costs may be recouped by recycling), but the cost of setting up new printlines and recalling and reissuing the banknote supply of an entire country would mean that inertia would just keep things as they are. To quote the Note Printing Australia website (http://www.noteprinting.com/banknotes.html): "While paper production is common place with many suppliers worldwide, the production of polymer substrate is a very specialised technology requiring substantial investment." StreetJimmy (talk) 18:04, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]


Its not heat resistant, apparently? http://imgur.com/a/tHc84 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.218.21.149 (talk) 04:51, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

after long heavy use, can tear - repair with sticky tape.
also can develop "dog-ears" which can be hard to supress. Tabletop (talk) 07:27, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
They recently have been introduced in Canada, and I was not too happy that their corners cut, that they don't bend in half easily (so are troublesome to store in a pocket, they "rebound open"), and that a stack is very difficult to count, as they tend to stick together and are thin. I heard complaints of people dropping them more often as well, as they tend to stick together as one slides one note out of a pocket or wallet. Unfortunately we'd need some kind of reliable source to be able to cover these issues. 76.10.128.192 (talk) 02:20, 2 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

US Currency?[edit]

Recently, around the time of the introduction of the new Washington Dollar coin in the US, there was some noise about a poll which had been taken on whether the US public would support the phasing out of a dollar bill altogether, as Canada has done. The US public is against it. The federal government would like to replace the bills with coins, largely for durability reasons. Probably in the Wikipedia wheresgeorge article there is something about the average US $1 bill's lasting only about 22 months before it is so badly worn that it needs to be replaced. before seeing this article I'd wondered why US $1 bills couldn't be printed on Tyvek. Does anyone have additional information on whether the US government is considering resurrecting the earlier $1-on-Tyvek trials, or perhaps printing on Guardian? It would seem to make sense, though I could imagine the US federal government's being leery of importing "paper" for currency at all, even from a friendly country like Australia. Perhaps a license could be obtained for Guardian's use if Tyvek isn't suitable. Anyone know whom in the federal government one would make noise to about doing this? Xenophon777 01:26, 5 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can read in this article why Tyvek has proven to be a poor material for banknotes (doesn't hold ink very well; the ink tends to smudge easily, especially in humid climates. Tyvek does have its uses though... it's a very good insulating material.) I'm sure the goverment would see it as a security concern to have to import the material to make its notes... perhaps they'd consider purchasing a license so they could produce it themselves... however as they tend to be resistant to change (largely responding to the electorate, which overall isn't too fond of changing the notes) it doesn't seem likely any time soon. Just look at the fights when they tried to eliminate the penny and one dollar bill, for example. You want to suggest it, this kind of things are ultimately done legislatively, so write various Congressman if you're so inclined. 71.237.10.137 (talk) 07:39, 21 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Solomons[edit]

It is stated that the Solomon Islands has only issued commemorative polymer notes. This is untrue. The polymer $2 was released for general circulation and not commemoratively, so I've changed the mention in the article.Tarcus 07:43, 28 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:SolomonIslands2dollars.jpg[edit]

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BetacommandBot 20:58, 23 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Fiji notes[edit]

This from mthe Fiji dollar article "The Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Savenaca Narube announced on 11 February 2006 that polymer plastic coated notes would be introduced, featuring images of local people, culture, trade and industry. The new notes, which would be ready for distribution in early 2007, would vary in size, Narube said." I have seen the RBF brochure o\and it appears they are in no way polymer. Anyone else know anything? Tarcus 06:50, 7 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:PNG $20 note, polymer.jpg[edit]

Image:PNG $20 note, polymer.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 00:44, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:MYR 5polymer.jpg[edit]

Image:MYR 5polymer.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 12:31, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Original research and unverified claims[edit]

This article seems to contain a lot of original research and unverified claims. I am not an expert on the subject but I would appreciate someone with knowledge of the subject matter to provide a few citations and some advice as to how to clean up the article. Thanks. Dr.K. logos 03:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Generalizing this article[edit]

Even though Australia has been a pioneer in the introduction of polymer banknotes, this article shouldn't be categorized as Australian. There are non-Australian (i.e. non-Guardian) technologies, and the spread is truly global. Davis39 (talk) 22:39, 18 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Vietnam[edit]

The article states that they have fully converted to polymer bank notes, but I am pretty sure that is incorrect, they still use paper for small denomination bills. 62.113.159.156 (talk) 10:09, 21 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

New Costa Rican banknote[edit]

Costa Rica recently redesigned its currency, and its 1000 colones note is a polymer note. Should be easy enough to verify; could someone add this information? (I'd do it myself but not sure how to make it "Wikipedia friendly" with all the sources and such.) 2001:558:6040:9:6958:F6DD:13B6:327B (talk) 21:02, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Polymer or Plastic?[edit]

It's quite amusing that these are called polymer notes, to distinguish them from the paper notes. However, paper notes, which are made from a combination of paper and cotton, is almost entirely cellulose, which is also a polymer.

I notice there's already a section in the article discussing the etymology of polymer banknotes. I'm not yet quite sure how to include this amusing tidbit. Khyven (talk) 10:44, 13 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Timeline[edit]

In my opinion the timeline section would be a lot clearer in the form of a table or tables.----Ehrenkater (talk) 16:13, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Timeline & text are not well integrated. 07:07, 9 October 2019 (UTC)123.211.16.135 (talk)

The Timeline makes no reference to the 1988 note released in Australia despite it being noted in the introduction.123.211.16.135 (talk) 07:02, 9 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, its current format is cluttering the ToC as well. I think the timeline, in its current form, could be integrated better as prose. However, rewriting a few bits for brevity could make it flow well as a table, and allow for better integration of country-specific information (right now, announcements of adoption are separated from the dates of introduction). I will sandbox an improved format. --EnronEvolvedMy Talk Page 17:40, 9 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

  • After a small eternity, I have the first draft of the table ready, should anyone wish to see it. It currently integrates most of the information in the current timeline with a few exceptions: the Canadian commemorative issues are deliberately omitted as they aren't new adoptions of polymer banknotes, I haven't got all of the UK banks covered in the UK's entry (I think that bit needs reworking), and some more research needs to be done before I continue with India's section. --EnronEvolvedMy Talk Page 16:54, 27 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Map[edit]

Can I suggest a map of states/territories which use polymer banknotes with possible colour coding of fully polymer, partially polymer, special issue only, former polymer, non-polymer, polymer under consideration.Lacunae (talk) 20:55, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Isle of Man[edit]

Is there a reason why the Isle of Man 50p polymer note of 1983 is not mentioned in this article? It was only issued for five years, but remained legal tender until 2013. See Manx pound#Banknotes. Sarandone (talk) 15:34, 22 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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Big changes on worldwide currency fabric[edit]

The composition of the security of polymer banknotes should have been introduced long ago , as for waiting until some of the years that they put the polymer banknotes in print , just let political parties be dwarfed as economies took second place to what communities are debating . Probability is history is worried with its occurrence,s & the white colour crimes, & the one,s that are being heard next to nothingness is also worried it's not yesterday,s problem it's monumental task day to day operations which are not moved by disappearing effects of non-securitised banknotes... None of the systems incorporated for social financial infastructure,s are appealing to any of the majority communities citizens. Important factors of nations security. Trazeez (talk) 13:05, 25 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Bad table sorting[edit]

The dates in the polymer banknote table don't sort dates properly. Qwertyxp2000 (talk | contribs) 14:29, 9 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Should I just sort dates by YYYY-MM-DD format? Not all sections have exact dates, however. Qwertyxp2000 (talk | contribs) 05:42, 3 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]