The plastification of our money is almost complete. Earlier today, the Bank of Canada released the designs for its new polymer $5 and $10 bills, the fronts and backs of which you can see if you click through the image gallery, above.
The back of the $5 bill features a handsome portrait of two of Canada’s contributions to the International Space Station: Canadarm2 and Dextre. The $10 bill, meanwhile, has a grape-coloured train making its way through the Rockies. (Wilfrid Laurier and John A. Macdonald still gaze out at you from the fronts.) We understand some people don’t like the properties and appearance of the plastic, but these designs don’t strike us as being worse than the old ones. The current $5 bill has kids playing hockey on the back and the new one has space robots. Seems like a step in the right direction.