The End of Paper Currency in the UK

[Richard Kaufman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/busin ... cy.html?hp

Looks like plastic bills, already adopted in Canada, will soon be used in the UK as well starting in a year.

Tough times if you do tricks which require you to fold a banknote!

[erdnasephile]

Question: Does plastic currency burn well for things like Seabrooke's routine? Do you need a special pen to mark such bills?

Also, I wonder how this effects some gimmicks like "The Final Answer".

The article says the bills are slippery, yet stick together-can you false count them well (for say, Fred Kaps' routine?)

Perhaps it doesn't matter, since I keep hearing continual rumblings about how switching to coins only would save lots and lots of money.

[Richard Kaufman]

Plastic money does NOT burn or tear. So, goodbye to all torn and restored, or burnt and restored bill routines. The things are also supposed to be very slippery.

[Brad Henderson]

can you shred it?

[Bob Farmer]

Canadian plastic bills do have a cool feature that I've been playing around with--they have a section that is transparent. So imagine a Chinatown coin but it's a bill.

More later.

[Ian Kendall]

I encountered plastic bills in Australia in 93. If you are used to paper notes, it takes a bit of getting used to. I can't see how effects like flash cash or anything involving a torn corner or burned note working. I used them for traveling cash, but you had to make some changes to the instructions to be workable.

As for loading them into fruit; be aware that if you fold them, they do not fold flat. So, if you need to load them into anything that requires them to stay flat for a period of time, that's not going to happen. The bill switch is out, as well.

All in all, not ideal news for workers...

[Brad Henderson]

Why would a bill switch be out? I realize they may not fold flat, but would they not fold enough to allow for a 100$ bill switch type thing? thanks fortne insight.

[Tom Pilling]

What pisses me off the most, quite apart from magic, is that apparently there was a consultation. When? Where? We were never consulted.

I'd be interested in the ecological arguments. On the one hand, paper money means wood pulp, on the other, plastics don't easily bio-degrade.

I suspect it is based on economy, and short term at that.

Bah Humbug.

[Jim Riser]

Folding a bill is not necessary for an effective bill change. I need to find a couple plastic bills to play with. One of the accessories I made for my previous holdout was for a bill switch using a rolled bill. Look at this as an opportunity for new development.
Jim

[Bill Mullins]

On the one hand, paper money means wood pulp

U.S. paper money is made of cloth (mostly cotton, with a little linen and silk).

[Ian Kendall]

Why would a bill switch be out? I realize they may not fold flat, but would they not fold enough to allow for a 100$ bill switch type thing? thanks fortne insight.

From memory, they don't crease well, and don't like being folded. If you tried to fold a bill and load it into a thumb tip, it would spring out again unless it's held in. You won't have the nice, convenient creases on the bill to show you where to fold and trying to conceal the small packet behind while it's doing its best to unfold would be fun.

I think the best way to test this (should anyone feel the urge) is to go to your local currency exchange and buy a couple of Australian notes - a five and a ten should do it for you - and then play around. Certainly, when I was doing traveling cash there was no time when the bill could be released or it just opened up again...

Basically, any effect where a bill has to be folded flat with a sharp crease is out - I've just thought of greenwarp (and variations), and anything involving origami...

[erdnasephile]

Losing Green Warp would really hurt.

Being plastic, I suppose not much adheres to it as well, so any version of the U.F. Grant Bill Switch is out (including Burger's and Klause's variants)

All of the Bamboozle/Short Change routines that depend on flaps and bills stuck together are at risk as well.

I think several Tenyo tricks will also cease to work as well.

Perhaps I'll stock up on some 1's against the time when the US follows suit.

As Jim said: it's an opportunity. However, some great routines will be lost, which is a bummer.

[user_241]

Plastic bills definitely take a bit of time to get used to. As mentioned above, Canada made the switch to plastic bills, and those are the bills I've been able to experiment with.


I've found that plastic bills definitely have a springy-ness to them especially when you start putting lots of folds into them such as for a bill switch. However, I have found that the tension that results from the multiple folds is manageable for a TT bill switch.


Some other points I've noticed with plastic bills is that they are translucent. This isn't really an issue per se, but it is something to be aware of when performing. If you were trying to conceal a TT behind a plastic bill, you might want to be careful of the lighting.


I also really enjoyed performing "Energy Bill" by Andrew Gerard. It was a nice impromptu effect that you could perform with a spectator's bill. Unfortunately, it looks like that is going to be a trick I'll have to retire once paper bills are phased out completely in Canada.


I imagine that there must be some interesting magic tricks that exploit plastic bills. I'll have to put my thinking cap on

[Curtis Kam]

I've done tricks with Aussie bills, and you can manage them into a thumbtip with not too much evident struggle, but they do resist a fold.

That fact is rather well-known to the public, justifying the use of a paperclip, rubber band, or other restraining device. So some of those switching techniques that you may have discarded as unmotivated might now be valuable.

And if you're trying to burn a bill, you now have a reason to first put it into a more combustible paper envelope. Though I prefer a paper shredder, these days.

Here's a thought--how does dry erase marker do on plastic cash?

[Bob Farmer]

Lottery tickets with serial numbers are still made of paper. In Canada, Canadian Tire money is paper. Cheques are made of paper.

[Richard Kaufman]

"Canadian Tire money is paper."

What does that mean?

[Bob Farmer]

Only Canadians know.

[user_241]

LOL ... Canada's second currency.

[Joe Mckay]

I will miss UF Grant's Million Dollar Mystery the most.

As for 'Greenwarp' - I wouldn't worry about it. I do 'Dr Strangetrick' and I always use American money. The exact proportions needed for the trick work better with US money.

So - that is what I always use. And it is pretty easy to justify with patter.

And should - unlikely buy you never know - American ever switch to plastic money, there will still be lots of the paper currency knocking around to stock up on for this brilliant trick.

I have being wating for this to happen. Since Mark Carney (the governor of the Bank of England) did the exact same thing when he first became the head of the Bank of Canada.

So - it was always a matter of time. Sadly.

[Bill Mullins]

Can you pre-crease a plastic bill with a clothes iron?

[Richard Kaufman]

You might be able to crease it, but you're essentially melting the plastic in order to do that, which means it probably wouldn't open flat afterward.

I would say that in the US, where we still have $1 bills while most of western civilization has the equivalent of $1 coins, it will be a long time before paper currency goes away. People in the US don't like to do something the government requires them to do. The government has tried over and over to introduce $1 coins because they'd like to phase out $1 bills, and people just won't use the coins.

[erdnasephile]

While I would agree with you Richard Re: Americans not liking being told what to do, I have also observed lately the increasing willingness of our government to regulate what once was thought to be private behavior.

Therefore, it would not surprise me that the idea of banning paper money might gain some traction (under the auspices of saving money) in the future. (I actually heard McCain talking about this last year on the radio.)

With regards to Bob's examples of the continuing use of paper in some Canadian transactions/documents, I think that's what will happen to all those cool bill effects. We'll probably end up doing them with old money, or dollar bill sized pieces of paper (checks).

However, in the process, we'll lose the unique quality of currency. That is: the unspoken assumption by audiences that what appear to be official pieces of paper can't be gimmicked. I think that's one reason why tricks with poker chips just don't seem as impressive as those with genuine coins.

[Richard Kaufman]

Looking a bit farther into the future, there will be no coins or bills at all, and all transactions will be electronic.

[Jeff Haas]

I guess it's back to Playing Card in Lemon then. Good use for the Intercessor gaff.

[Jeremy Greystoke]

Looking a bit farther into the future, there will be no coins or bills at all, and all transactions will be electronic.

So the idea of doing the Miser's Dream with bitcoins remains theoretical at best for now.

Jeremy

[Jonathan Townsend]

Looking a bit farther into the future, there will be no coins or bills at all, and all transactions will be electronic.

So the idea of doing the Miser's Dream with bitcoins remains theoretical at best for now.

Jeremy

Or VERY topical as some folks have made "replica" BitCoins
here are a few links
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-free ... 46496.html
http://imgur.com/r/bitcoin/4eer6DV

J

[Jeremy Greystoke]

Cool! New presentations for Matrix and Coins Across await.....

Jeremy

[erdnasephile]

I don't think I'd change my routines to BitCoins just yet:

http://www.streetinsider.com/Forex/Bitc ... 90564.html

[Richard Stokes]

Innovia, the company that produces the plastic notes, could be bought up soon by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.
Maybe I'm xenophobic, but I don't like the idea of British Pounds being manufactured by billionaire kleptocrats from overseas.