Turns out Canada’s new $100 and $50 bills can’t stand the heat after all. Under certain conditions they will curl up like bacon in a frying pan.

“The Bank of Canada cannot rule out that polymer notes may be damaged under certain extraordinary conditions,” Julie Girard, a currency spokesperson for the Bank of Canada, told the Star Thursday. According to various reports, the so-called indestructible polymer bills will shrink under intense heat, be it the inside of a car or placed next to a heat source.

The new $100 bills, which were introduced in November, underwent scientific tests to make sure they withstood various conditions, the Bank of Canada says. The polymer $50 was introduced earlier this year.

According to anecdotal reports from Brittney Halldorson, a teller at the Interior Savings Credit Union in Kelowna, B.C., she’s heard of cases where several of the bills have melted together inside a hot car.

The Star confirmed another report of a Halifax man who laid his wallet on a toaster oven after toasting a bagel and noticed later that three $100 bills had taken on the shape of a “Coke bottle.”

“So you can’t rip them, you can’t tear them, you can’t wreck them by washing them but apparently you can heat them and melt them,” said a banking industry source who asked not to be identified.

And then there was the Cambridge Times (a sister paper of the Star) story in January about a man who at Christmas left eight $100 bill he had received as a bonus in a tin box near a heater only to discover a day later that they had shrivelled up.

But how could this be possible given that the Bank of Canada says it rigorously tested the new longer lasting bills in extreme heat of 140°C and extreme cold of -75°C temperatures?

The Bank of Canada isn’t saying.

The new $100 bills cost 19 cents each to produce — almost twice that of paper bills — but are said to last 2.5 times longer, or about 19 years, than the paper cousin and are resistant to tearing and water damage. The new bills also have hidden security features, including transparent holograms, making them difficult to counterfeit.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1225532--plastic-bills-quick-spend-them-before-they-melt



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