Plastic money, do you like it

[Bud]

Plastic bank notes, a horrible invention. Difficult to carry in pockets more than 2-3 bills at time, slippery to handle, difficult to fold and unfold putting in and out of wallet, easy to damage, terribly looking after changing several hands. But the worse is that warm feeling of money is lost. Disgusting piece of shit. IMHO.

[Stonent]

Cotton/Denim dollars for the win!

[Dago]

I can offer a welcoming home for any money you have a dislike for

[Bored@Work]

We just got new 10 Euro notes and recently got new 5 Euro notes. They are now covered with a special lacquer to prolong their lifetime. They have a bit of a feel of plastic now.

[SeanB]

You will get 5 Euro coins soon, as they last longer.

[cimmo]

We've had them for two decades.
They were invented in Australia. Canada and 28 other countries use the same polymer substrate as we do.

They're fine, you'll get used to them.

[nctnico]

I'm amazed people still use cash. I don't carry any cash money around; only a debit card which works everywhere.

[SeanB]

Wait till your bank has one of those days when a patch or an upgrade goes tits up. RBS ring a bell? Can you do things with the debit card if the bank is offline for a month while they try to sort out the SNAFU made by the outsourced untrained ( but the beancounters got paid a handsome bonus) staff who read the script wrong, and messed up again trying to fix it ( who would guess the backups were not going to work........).

Locally here 2 major bank groups had a day of downtime each about a month apart. I never noticed, even though I have accounts at both of them, and they went down at month end in each case. A lot of people were majorly inconvenienced, because they did not have cash to pay with.

[atferrari]

I'm amazed people still use cash. I don't carry any cash money around; only a debit card which works everywhere.

Like a gas station (or a bar for the case) in the middle of nowhere during a blackout in that area.   

Picture a place with some 200 Km to the next point where you could find a human being.

[nctnico]

During a blackout the gas station won't work either so that is not a problem.

[German_EE]

Coins larger than two Euro have been issued to mark special events but at the moment there are no plans to issue five Euro coins into general circulation. I have an inside source for this information.

As for plastic bank notes the last time I saw one was in the 1980s when I visited the Isle of Man. I remember keeping one for the novelty value but I have not seen it for years. Given the cost of printing new bank notes I can see the attraction of a long life plastic version but I still appreciate gravure printing on good quality rag paper.

[Artlav]

Plastic money is great.
At least Australian ones, haven't tried any other.

No idea how it can be called "fragile", to the contrary it felt solid and untearing.
With Euros i am a little nervous handling large bill, because they can tear rather easily.

Also waterproof quality is a really good idea, especially after you wash your paper paycheck in a washing machine and have the cashiers tell you your money is lit up like a fake note.

And, from what i heard, it's not exactly easy to forge.

Downside is - the notes stick together in a rather unobvious way, you have to learn to always check for it, or you might end up paying twice the amount.

I'm amazed people still use cash. I don't carry any cash money around; only a debit card which works everywhere.

I guess it's regional.
There are still many, many places where you can't pay with a card, but cash is always an option.

[saturation]

Canada started rolling out these new polymer bills 1-2 years ago, so I guess the OP is getting his transition blues.  I land travel a lot to neighbors Canada and Mexico, who use polymer notes, and it was easy to get used to them coming from paper note USA:

Brand new bills tend to stick to each other, seems worse in less humid or warm climates like Canada.  When I count them I crumple them in my fist between each thumbing of a bill during the count.  The creases keep the bills from sticking.

They are great for water sports so one needn't leave your wallet off your person to potentially get stolen.  US bills get limp and take a while to dry but polymer bills you can just wipe dry.  I use a stainless money clip to hold them.  After being wet, once dried, the bills stick much much less, particularly when exposed to salt water, the thin film of grime gives them some texture to stop the sticking.  They also dry fast, just take the money clip and bang it on a towel, and a wad will be mostly dry.

Wet fingers make grasping polymer money easier.

Accidentally laundering them has the same effect.  Just don't put them in the drier, then do melt or  deform.

They are springy, so a wad of them resists being folded and creased.  I use a money clip so I haven't had that issue, and once folded for a while they eventually hold their fold.

[rob77]

With Euros i am a little nervous handling large bill, because they can tear rather easily.

especially because of the width of the banknotes - which is increasing with value. fortunately they pulled back the 200 and 500 notes from normal use. but the 100 euro note is still too wide and gets damaged on the edges easily.

[gxti]

I imagine they don't retain cocaine as well as the paper ones, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_currency

92% of the bills were positive for cocaine with a mean amount of 28.75+/-139.07 micrograms per bill, a median of 1.37 ?g per bill, and a range of 0.01-922.72 ?g per bill. Heroin was detected in seven bills in amounts ranging from 0.03 to 168.5 ?g per bill: 6-AM and morphine were detected in three bills; methamphetamine and amphetamine in three and one bills, respectively, and PCP was detected in two bills in amounts of 0.78 and 1.87 ?g per bill.

[miguelvp]

Just don't leave your cash on the dashboard on a hot day or the notes will melt together! 

I kid, because regardless of the material it will cause a broken windshield and I bet they are some special polymer that has a higher melting point and is more flexible, which means that its probably pretty toxic because they need long chains that your mitochondria will try to process to create protein chains.

[nctnico]

With Euros i am a little nervous handling large bill, because they can tear rather easily.

especially because of the width of the banknotes - which is increasing with value. fortunately they pulled back the 200 and 500 notes from normal use. but the 100 euro note is still too wide and gets damaged on the edges easily.

I have never been a fan of the Euro bills. They are just pale and feel crappy compared to the (beautyfull!) paper money we used to have in the NL.

[David Hess]

Just don't leave your cash on the dashboard on a hot day or the notes will melt together! 

Apparently a car dashboard has not been enough but there are other stories of accidents melting them:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/17/is-canadas-plastic-money-actually-melting/

[Psi]

In nz we use  eftpos for everything, even 50c items. So most people dont even carry much cash if any at all. Maybe a 20 for emergency use.
Our notes went to plastic many years back. I really cant say ive found any bad issues with plastic  money. Its better than paper in everyway imho

[chickenHeadKnob]

Canada started rolling out these new polymer bills 1-2 years ago, so I guess the OP is getting his transition blues.  I land travel a lot to neighbors Canada and Mexico, who use polymer notes, and it was easy to get used to them coming from paper note USA:

Brand new bills tend to stick to each other, seems worse in less humid or warm climates like Canada.  When I count them I crumple them in my fist between each thumbing of a bill during the count.  The creases keep the bills from sticking.

The bills sticking together is essentially my only gripe. Last week a grocery check-out lady observed me doing my now habitual thumb and forefinger rub-rub on each bill and laughed. She said: " they are now putting some coating on them so they don't stick so much". I don't know if that's true or the bills are just getting dirty and greasy with use.

[Bud]

.. waterproof quality is a really good idea

A few years ago I visited Titanic exhibition here in Canada where bunch of artifacts retrieved from the seabed crash site were on the display. Among other things there were several paper banknotes there and they looked just fine. Guess we lost that printing technology...

[VK3DRB]

Australian plastic notes... we make them here. They are much more difficult to copy than the primitive US notes. Plus they are more user friendly for blind people.

Please don't Google "wikileaks supreme court order bank notes" and don't read the PDF on the third entry down.

[EEVblog]

We've had them for two decades.
They were invented in Australia. Canada and 28 other countries use the same polymer substrate as we do.
They're fine, you'll get used to them.

And you'll find the durability is excellent in practical usage.
And of course the security is orders of magnitude ahead of that backwards US stuff.
When I'm in the US I get sick of getting stares like I'm a criminal if I pay with a $50 note, refuse to take them because they might be counterfeit, or have the call the manager over to approve it. Many tellers even thoroughly inspect $20 notes while you have to wait there, it's ridiculous.
Hand over a $100 polymer note in Oz and no one bats an eyelid.

[EEVblog]

Interestingly the federal reserve has a facility just around the corner from my lab that does something super-secret to do with the note printing.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/6+Elizabeth+Macarthur+Dr,+Bella+Vista+NSW+2153/@-33.7424845,150.9512069,3a,75y,131.83h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s7DUeBVcN3ex8bKkFxf7LWA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x6b1298aa4f392a43:0xd1d5f89e58c8e9b7

There is a part of the street view outside their front gate mysteriously missing...
No signs, just electrified fences, bared wire, security cameras and guards.

[David Hess]

And you'll find the durability is excellent in practical usage.
And of course the security is orders of magnitude ahead of that backwards US stuff.
When I'm in the US I get sick of getting stares like I'm a criminal if I pay with a $50 note, refuse to take them because they might be counterfeit, or have the call the manager over to approve it. Many tellers even thoroughly inspect $20 notes while you have to wait there, it's ridiculous.
Hand over a $100 polymer note in Oz and no one bats an eyelid.

I have never had a problem with $50s or $100s.  Very rarely they will check them with a pen for detecting starch.  Maybe it is your accent.

If you want some real fun, try using US $2 bills:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/05/04/08/2213237/best-buy-has-man-arrested-for-using-2-bills