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Brief History
The Bank Of Canada issued its first series of Canadian tender in 1935. The bills at that time were $1, $2, a commemorative $25, $500, and $1000. Fast forward to 2023, and only $5, $10, $50, and $100 are being produced and used as legal tender. Why? Some of these notes were only commemoratives, others succeeded in coin forms, while a certain one was unfairly discontinued. That is to be discussed later. As of January 01, 2021, the $1, $2, $25, $500 and $1,000 bills from every Bank Of Canada series are no longer legal tender. The $1 and the $2 notes stopped being issued in 1989 and 1996, respectively, and were succeeded with coins. The $25 and $500 notes were commemoratives, that were discontinued shortly after they were issued in 1935. The $1,000 note stopped being issued in 2000.
Are These Bills Worthless?
Removing legal tender status from these bills means that they are no longer considered money. This does not mean that the notes are worthless. It only means that they cannot be used in a cash transaction. The Bank Of Canada will continue to honour them at face value. Some of the rarer notes, such as the $25 and $500, can be worth significantly more than face value. To find out if your bank note may have a different value to collectors, you may refer to a collector’s catalog or obtain an evaluation from 2 or 3 money dealers who cater to the collection market.
Impact On Canadians
The Bank Of Canada says that these bank notes have not been produced in decades, so the decision to remove them from circulation has had little impact on most of us. I disagree. The only bill where I believe 99% of Canadians will not miss, would be the $25, $1, and $2 notes. For the $1 and $2 notes, they have been replaced with coins, so while the bills do not exist, at least the option to physically transact that amount still exists. The $25 was superficially close to the $20 bill, so I would agree that it was best left as a celebratory note. Though, some would argue that the same could be said for the $5 and $10 bills. If the $25 bill were brought back, I would be happy for it, but at the same time, I also do not mind its absence. Where I strongly disagree is the discontinuation of the $1000 bill. Once you learn the reason why it was discontinued, you too, might think it is unfair, and will want the $1000 to come back.
Why The $1000 Bill Was Discontinued
The $1000 bill was discontinued because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police urged the government to phase them out in 2000. The reason? The $1000 bill made money laundering too easy for criminals. Radio Canada International also mentions that counterfeiting and tax evasion were other complaints from the RCMP as to why the $1000 bill needed to go. While I certainly agree that money laundering is not something to be taken lightly, blaming the $1000 bill and asking for its discontinuation is quite frankly bad and is less freedom for Canadians. Case in point: The Bank Of Canada even admitted that it struggled eliminate the bill. 6 years later, 2006, there were still 1,000,000 of the bills still in circulation in 2006. What does that tell you? Canadians would have preferred to keep it in circulation. Unfortunately, there was no vocal backlash against this move, hence why the Government went ahead without asking for public input from citizens.
Now you might be thinking, if nobody complained about saving the $1000 bill, the public must have also agreed with the RCMP, right? No. At least, not everybody. Further proof is the fact that the Government had to create an incentive in order to force Canadians give them up: render them invalid tender in 2021. As discussed above, this move did not make them worthless; only worthless in cash transactions. They had to be exchanged at the Bank Of Canada for existing currency. This clearly tells us that if Government worked on actually improving the $1000 bill, such as making it out of the same modern polymers as existing bills, they would not need to discontinue it. As for the money laundering problem, there are many other solutions and financial crime preventatives that could have been done to tackle the problem. In the 23 years since its discontinuation, cyber security, and security in general has significantly improved. Therefore, All financial institutions, from large banks to small credit unions, need to do a better job with the tools and resources in place to significantly reduce financial crimes.
Expensive Times Call For Bigger Bills
Words like “Inflation”, “Cost Of Living”, and “Expensive” have been a very common theme for the 2020s thus far. Nearly everything is significantly more expensive than it was, say, 10 years ago. A flagship smartphone with top storage would have been $500 – $700. Now, a 1TB device from major companies readily tips the $2000. Vehicles, groceries, electronics, clothes, homes, and all: more expensive. I mentioned the word “Freedom” earlier. Imagine being able to pay for a smartphone, vehicle, large appliance, instrument, or other expensive items or services with physical cash? Want to buy that $50,000 all-electric car? 50 $1000 bills. Sony Xperia 1 IV? 1 $1000 and maybe 1-5 $100 bills. Baritone saxophone? 5 – 15 $1000 bills. While credit and debit cards may be commonly used, it is clear that not everybody prefers that method of payment, despite society trying so hard for cashless transactions. There is certainly nothing wrong with taps, swipes, and the entering of cards. However, for it to become the only use of a transaction would be dangerous, problematic, and a gross limitation of freedom.
The 2022 Rogers Communications outage that led to ATMs failing, is just 1 of many reasons why physical cash will always be important. And speaking of crisises, Canadian banks have admitted that they noticed a sharp rise of withdrawals during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking of COVID19, let us not forget the times when some retailers were refusing physical cash as a non-scientifically proven way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The card terminals and buttons were no cleaner than cash. This led to major headlines centered around “Is It Legal For Businesses To Refuse Physical Cash?” And within much of them, people spoke out against cashless transactions. Canadians said that those restrictions added more anxiety, and grief on top of all the stressful things already happening during the pandemic.
Resurrect The $1000 Bill
No need to fear the big, bad financial criminals at the cost of less options for everyone else. Big bills or not, criminals have, and will unfortunately continue to perform their activities. Better tools and collaborative actions between financial institutions will be the key for Canadians to safely enjoy the $1000 bill in its modern glory. If, by any unicorn-of-a-chance this write-up actually causes someone at the Bank Of Canada or some other financial leader to become motivated enough to resurrect it, it would only be natural for the $500 bill to come back as well. The gap between $100 and $1000 will be problematic and irritating without an intermediate bill to bridge the distance.
What Would The New $1000 and $500 Bills Look Like?
I was going to end this write-up at “Resurrect The $1000”. Not too long after completion, I realized that I could not proceed to notifying the World Wide Web about the existence of this particular write-up, without answering a critical question: what would these bills look like in their modern forms? I can say with 99.9% certainty that the $500 bill is not going to come back with John Alexander Macdonald. Canada has been moving ahead with taking him off of things, such as renaming buildings that had his name, and how he no longer appears on the present $10 bill. Who should take his place? If you ask me, a bird. Which kind of bird? I say the trumpeter swan. He is a large, beautiful, native, controversy-free being that would make a wonderful face to the $500 bill.
Now the $1000 is where things get interesting. For much of its life, it bared the face of Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen died back in 2022, so I do not think any new bills would feature her face anymore. King Charles III? Based on headlines and other sources, Canadians made it fairly clear that they do not want him on their money. So who will go on the $1000 bill? Pinicola enucleator. Do not recognize her? Pine Grosbeak is her English name. In 1988, the reverse side of the $1000 bill featured 2 cute, little pine grosbeaks. So if this bill were to be brought back sometime in the 2020s, it would make sense to have pine grosbeaks on both the obverse and reverse sides of the modern bill.
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