Does Canada have a lot of counterfeiters?

SkittlePoker

It's starting to drive me nuts. Pretty much any store I go into runs the paper bills through some kind of ultraviolet/whatever test.

WHAT THE CRAP

I had to buy a small doohickey at Can Tire today. Gave the lady my 5 dollar bill then had to wait for the money to be "checked" by the machine that the 2 cashiers were sharing. Went to the store the other day to buy some lottery tickets for a group of people. Gave the lady 30 dollars. Had to wait while the 20 and two 5's were checked.

WHAT THE CRAP

Is this just something that the banks are cooking up in order to force us to use debit cards/credit more? I would imagine they would make more money processing a transaction rather then handling physical money.

With the new 20 dollar bill coming out will this meant that I can now use the money without having to stand there and feel like I've done something wrong? I can barely tolerate standing in line at the price club, trying to get out the door while Joe Shmuck looks at my receipt and my shopping cart all the while just waiting for the opportunity to blow the receipt checker whistle and bring the price club swat team down on me.

ARRRRRRG :banghead:

k, I almost feel better.

ScottyZ

Regardless of the current state of counterfeiting in Canada, I would certainly expect counterfeiting to rise dramatically if vendors were not able to (and ideally, encouraged to) verify the authenticity of bank notes presented to them as payment.

Counterfeiting would flourish most in a country where frequency and effectiveness of person-to-merchant currency authentication were at their least.

Merchants verifying that currency is valid leads to *more* widespread use of physical currency, not less. Public (including both customers and businesses) awareness of the authenticity features of the physical currecncy they use is by far the most effective deterent to counterfeiting there could ever be.

From the conspiracy theorist's "chartered banks like debit and credit card transactions" point of view, the chartered banks' best angle here would be to *discourage* point-of-transaction verification of the authenticity of bank notes by merchants. That's sort of what you're suggesting, right? This would lead to a lack of faith in the physical currency by both businesses and the general public, leading to an increased use of debit and credit cards. But, at least this way you avoid the inhumane treatment of having your bank notes passed underneath a UV light bulb.

I'd much rather live in an economy where it is both easy and commonplace for merchants to verify the validity of each transaction both physical and electronic which they partake in with the public. The economic cost of doing otherwise is an increased success rate of crime and fraud (counterfeiting, credit card fraud, etc.), which benefits criminals to the detriment of the rest of society. That's why I won't mind waiting the extra few seconds the next time a bank note I use is verified for authenticity at the local Tim Horton's.

Here is a nice webpage to start with if you're interested in this kind of thing:

http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/counterfeit/

I almost feel better...

ScottyZ