How can I spend older Canadian money?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 21 Jul, 2023
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I spent about $2000 of notes from the 60s to 90s recently. (2015) I was refused in one place where the waitress had just arrived from East Africa (so fair enough) Everywhere else gladly took them, although every second transaction was a bit like the scene from Star Wars when the rebels try to enter the Imperial battle station (?) and they say to Darth Vader ‘it’s an old code but a good one’ or something like that. One waiter in Toronto bought many notes for himself.
So here’s what actually happened.
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The 2004 notes were accepted without hesitation at a variety of restaurants, shops, etc.
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The 1979 notes were refused by the first place I tried to spend one, a Starbucks. However, a branch of BMO (Bank of Montreal) was happy to exchange them for new notes, even though I didn’t have an account there.
They are accepted everywhere. The new notes are a fairly recent introduction and so we still see a good number of older bills, particularly for smaller denominations.
In fact, the transition to polymer notes is not even fully adopted. Just last month, the parking machine at the hospital had a note on it saying to see the guard on duty to change them to paper notes before using the machine.
What has been phased out are pennies. Amounts are now rounded to the nearest 5c. If you do have a substantial amount of change, some banks have counting machines and will convert them. Electronic transactions though are still calculated to the penny.
The Bank of Canada addresses this in their FAQ on the new polymer notes:
All notes issued by the Bank of Canada since 1935 have legal tender status and retain their full value. If you don’t know how to check notes from past series, exchange them for newer ones at your local bank.
You should have no trouble spending them, though if you just want to be sure, any bank will be able to exchange them for a new polymer note for you.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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