[TORONTO, ON] – Paying with plastic takes on a new meaning today as the Bank of Canada rolls out new $100 bills to replace the cotton-paper blend note.
The $100 is Canada's first polymer bank note and features a wealth of anti-counterfeiting features such as partially-hidden numbers.
The bill also includes a large, transparent window, transparent text, a metallic portrait, raised ink and a frosted maple leaf window.
The $100s feature two portraits of prime minister Robert Borden and an image of a researcher at a microscope and a depiction of DNA.
The $50 polymer note will follow next March.
The rest of the plastic money will be in circulation by the end of 2013.
A focus group took a close look at the $100 bill earlier this year and saw several offbeat images the designers didn't count on.
Some in the group mistook a strand of DNA on the $100 bill for a sex toy.
Most people also thought the see-through window on the new polymer notes was shaped like the contours of a woman's body.
Others looked into the portholes of a famed Canadian icebreaker and saw a skull and crossbones staring back at them.
