Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

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Richard Kaufman
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Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 21st, 2011, 10:35 pm

So, I just read this on Time's website:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/11/17/pay ... -100-bill/

Canadians are replacing their paper $100 bill with a plastic bill. It says that Australia did this in the 1908s!

Hey, Aussie folks, can you do magic with plastic bills?
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Tim Ellis
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Tim Ellis » November 22nd, 2011, 12:06 am

Absolutely. Look at my trick 'Bill to Anything' on ELLIS IN WONDERLAND or here as an instant download http://www.australianmagician.com/store ... oductId=16

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Ben Harris
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Ben Harris » November 22nd, 2011, 1:01 am

lol. More like the 1980's.

The plastic bills (our plasticized versions now include the $5, $10, $20 and $50-- along with the $100) are a discipline all of their own. Hard to crease for instance. Can be a problem, but you work around it. They all have clear plastic windows--a wonderful opportunity to exploit for visual changes.

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Bob Farmer
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Bob Farmer » November 22nd, 2011, 8:19 am

Canada's other bills are being replaced with IOUs ($5), chickens ($10), beads ($20) and beaver pelts ($50).

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erdnasephile
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby erdnasephile » November 22nd, 2011, 9:40 am

From the article: "Its reported to be almost impossible to rip..."


That's going to put a crimp into those "Whoops, it accidentally tore" types of presentations.

Bob: I think the US government already uses IOU's as currency... :)

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 22nd, 2011, 11:21 am

No more torn and restored.
No more $100 bill switch!
Get your scissors ready!

Of course, the USA is always the last to do anything. Most countries no longer have $1 and $5 paper bills, but have moved to coins. When I am in the UK or Japan, my damn pocket swings like a second scrotum with all those damn heavy coins in it!
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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Dustin Stinett » November 22nd, 2011, 12:07 pm

The dollar coin in the US has been a miserable failure. Like you, most Americans dislike a lot of coins. People get P-Oed when the currency is changed. The Congress is mostly poll driven in this case since there is not a big-assed lobby for the production of currencythough there is some internal influences: notice that they can't even get rid of the penny for goodness' sake.

It took a lawsuit in Federal Court (and upheld on appealthe friggin government appealed!) for blindness advocates, who have been trying to get US banknotes to be different sizes for decades, to get them to budge on this very sensible idea (I believe Canada embosses theirs, yes?). And still nothing has been done; that was three or four years ago. So I doubt we'll see a $1 or $5 coin in lieu of paper anytime soon.

Dustin

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erdnasephile
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby erdnasephile » November 22nd, 2011, 1:01 pm

Actually, the one trick (and it's variants) I will be sorry to see go because of this impending change are several of the versions of Card Warp involving a bill.

The other trick that was greatly affected by the current bill redesigns is Eugene Burger's version(s) of the Grant Bill Transposition. (I must have bought the revised versions at least 3 times).

Perhaps the most grevious casuality if bills start changing sizes (or cease to exist) will be Robert Neale's great book.

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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Jonathan Townsend » November 22nd, 2011, 2:00 pm

The trick that's gonna get tough is the one where you burn the envelopes.

Rolling up a bill inside a slip of paper (they come in pads that size) and other options (including scissors as pointed out by our host) take care of pretty much all but the tearing.

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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Larry Horowitz » November 22nd, 2011, 3:02 pm

I am working on "melted and restored"

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erdnasephile
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby erdnasephile » November 22nd, 2011, 6:01 pm

Tim and Ben:

Is it even possible to do the thumbtip handlings of the bill switch with the plastic bills (since they don't crease well)?

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SquareCircle
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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby SquareCircle » November 24th, 2011, 12:41 pm

my damn pocket swings like a second scrotum with all those damn heavy coins in it!


There's a delightful simile.

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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby RobertAllen » November 24th, 2011, 4:39 pm

SquareCircle wrote:
my damn pocket swings like a second scrotum with all those damn heavy coins in it!


There's a delightful simile.


Forget simile, I think Richard is bragging. My, cough, 1st scrotum does not swing like a heavy sack of coins :)

Dustin, two of the reasons Americans "hate" the dollar coins are:

1. the original coin was very easily confused with a quarter.

2. You can't use them in most vending machines, and many stores wouldn't take them because they had no place in the cash drawer to put them.

I'd welcome dollar coins. And getting rid of pennies.

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Re: Canada Goes for Plastic Currency

Postby Ian Kendall » November 24th, 2011, 5:01 pm

I remember when I touched down in Sydney and started doing close up with the plastic five dollar bills. It took a bit of getting used to, but after a few months I was coping.

When I got home it was like Nirvana :)


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