Birds of Canada are banknotes of the Canadian dollar first circulated by the Bank of Canada in 1986 to replace the Scenes of Canada series. Each note features a bird indigenous to Canada in its design. The banknotes weigh 1 gram with dimensions of 152.40 by 69.85 millimetres (6.00 by 2.75 in). It was succeeded by the Canadian Journey Series introduced in 2001.
Contents
This was the first series to omit the $1 banknote, which was replaced by the $1 coin known as the loonie in 1987. It was the last series to include the $2 and $1,000 banknotes. The $2 note was withdrawn in 1996 and replaced by the $2 coin known as the toonie. The $1,000 note was withdrawn by the Bank of Canada in 2000 as part of a program to mitigate money laundering and organized crime.
The portraits on the front of the note were made larger than those of previous series. The $20, $50, $100, and $1000 banknotes had a colour-shifting metallic foil security patch on the upper left corner, an optical security device that was difficult to reproduce with the commercial reproduction equipment of the time. This was the last Canadian banknote series to include planchettes as a security feature.
This series was the first to include a bar code with the serial number. This allows the visually impaired to determine the denomination of a banknote using a hand-held device distributed by the bank of Canada for free via the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
Design
The Bank of Canada began preparations for design of this series in 1974. A 1981 Parliamentary committee recommending design features enabling visually impaired individuals to determine the denomination of a banknote influenced the design process for the banknotes. In 1983, the Bank of Canada chose to use "clear, uncluttered images" of Canadian birds for the reverse. This imparted on the banknotes additional security against counterfeiting, as the design had a "single, large focal point" that enabled easier detection of counterfeits compared to the complex designs of earlier banknote series.
The banknote design contains distinct colours for each denomination, and large numerals on the obverse and reverse of each denomination, both of which facilitate quick identification. A patch of about 4.75 square millimetres (0.01 sq in) width at the edge of the central banner enables blind people to determine the denomination of a banknote using an electronic device and emit an audible output to indicate it, except for the $1000 banknote. On the reverse, vertical bars adjacent to the serial number are used by banknote sorting machines for quick identification to enable high-speed sorting.
Production
In 1984, the Bank of Canada announced that production of banknotes would be revised to require 100% cotton fibre, eliminating the 25% flax content requirement. Domestic flax producers in the Prairie provinces were upset by the change, which would result in a loss of revenue of about C$40,000. A Bank of Canada spokesman stated the change was necessary to satisfy pollution control standards, as raw flax processing uses chemicals eventually released as effluent.
The printing process required three lithographic plates and one intaglio plate for the obverse, and three lithographic plates for the reverse.
Security
All banknotes featured intaglio printing, microprinting and fine lines, fluorescence, and unique colours and serial numbers. The intaglio printing is raised ink appearing on the large numeral, the Arms of Canada, parts of the portrait, and the horizontal bands containing the words "BANK OF CANADA". The fine but clear microprinting cannot be easily reproduced by photocopiers and printers, and appears on the background patterns of the banknotes, the facial portion of the portraits, and in the vignette of the Parliament buildings. The colours used on the banknotes were based on security inks that could not be easily replicated.
The $20, $50, $100, and $1000 banknotes had a colour-shifting metallic foil security patch on the upper left corner, an optical security device that was difficult to reproduce with colour photocopiers and other commercial reproduction equipment of the time. It was a vacuum-deposited thin film consisting of ceramic layers developed by the Bank of Canada and the National Research Council of Canada in the early 1980s and was manufactured at the Bank of Canada roll-coating facility. The iridescent smooth patch would appear in a gradient between gold and green and show the face value of the banknote depending on the viewing angle, had no raised edges, and could not be peeled off the banknote. When photocopied, it would appear as a dark patch. All banknotes in the series were printed with a security ink that would fluoresce blue under ultraviolet light.
The banknotes also had a feature causing photocopiers recognizing it to refuse to copy the banknote, and a digital watermark which had the same effect on personal printers and scanners. These features had no effect on devices that could not recognize them.
This was the last Canadian banknote series to include planchettes, small green dots on the paper bills introduced in the 1935 Series (banknotes). These dots fluoresce blue under ultraviolet light and were used as a security feature. Some planchettes could be removed from legitimate bills, leaving a perfect bluish circle on the bill. Planchettes occurred with random position on both the obverse and reverse of banknotes, either on the surface or within the note.
In the mid 1990s, the Bank of Canada tested a new substrate for use in printing banknotes. It printed 100,000 experimental $5 banknotes having a substrate of polymer core with paper at the sides. The project was discontinued because the supplier could not produce the substrate at the scale required by the Bank of Canada for printing banknotes.
Counterfeiting
An attempt to create a faithful counterfeit reproduction of the $50 banknote using colour photocopiers was recorded in 1990. By the mid 1990s, counterfeiters had found a way to accurately reproduce the metallic foil. Counterfeit banknotes did not usually properly reproduce the fine lines and microprinting, rendering it as smudged or blurry.
The security features introduced in the Birds of Canada series led to a reduction in the counterfeit ratio of bills circulated in Canada to 4 parts per million (PPM) by 1990, one of the most secure currencies in the world. With the continuing advances in retail and commercial technology, by 1997 the counterfeit ratio had increased to 117 PPM, exceeding the 50 PPM de facto international benchmark. In late 2000, Wesley Weber scanned the $100 banknote, and for weeks used graphics software to correct the "fuzziness of the image" and improve its sharpness. He then conducted research to find a paper stock similar to that used for the real banknotes that would not fluoresce under ultraviolet light, and chose Mohawk Super Fine soft-white cotton fibre stock with eggshell finish. He used an inkjet printer to print three counterfeit bills per page, and stencilled onto each bill a metallic patch similar to the optical security device that he obtained from a company in New Jersey. He was arrested in 2001, by which time he had manufactured counterfeit banknotes with a face value of $6 million, and Canada's counterfeit ratio had increased to 129 PPM. That year, the Bank of Canada introduced the Canadian Journey Series, the banknotes of which were more resistant to counterfeiting.
In 2003, a high-quality counterfeit version of the $20 banknote was found in circulation in Ontario and Quebec. These counterfeit banknotes had been manufactured using "high quality paper, a manual hot foil-stamping machine, and airbrushing equipment" and die cut. Several Bulgarian counterfeiters were convicted and sentenced for counterfeiting the banknotes in December 2006. By 2004, counterfeit Birds of Canada $20 banknotes represented nearly 65% of all counterfeit currency in Canada.
Today, the Birds of Canada banknotes are relatively easy to counterfeit with inkjet printers. The Birds series and the original Canadian Journey Series are the most commonly counterfeited Canadian banknote series because of their lack of modern security features.
Effectiveness
The Bank of Canada commissioned a research survey of cash handlers and the general public to determine the effectiveness of the security features on the Birds of Canada and Canadian Journey series banknotes. The research found that participants correctly identified 84% of counterfeit banknotes based only on fluorescence features, 83% based only on microprinting and fine line features, and 80% based only on portrait features. Genuine banknotes were correctly identified 88%, 97%, and 89% of the time, respectively. The optical security device was the most effective security feature, used to correctly identify 98% of counterfeit banknotes and 95% of genuine banknotes.
Detecting counterfeits using only touch was 74% effective for the $10 banknote and 82% effective for the $20 banknote. Using only vision, counterfeit detection was 92% effective for the $10 banknote and 86% effective for the $20 banknote. Using both improved performance to 94% for both banknotes.
The general public correctly identified 72% of counterfeit banknotes, 80% of genuine $10 banknotes and 89% of genuine $20 banknotes. Commercial cash handlers, such as retail cashiers, correctly identified 86% of counterfeit banknotes, 89% of genuine $10 banknotes and 94% of genuine $20 banknotes. Bank tellers correctly identified 89% of counterfeit banknotes, 91% of genuine $10 banknotes and 95% of genuine $20 banknotes. All groups performed better with high-quality notes (that is, those that were clean and undamaged) with the exception that the general public misidentified many high-quality genuine $10 banknotes as counterfeit, which was attributed to the public's suspicion of new banknotes.
The participants performed better at identifying counterfeit Birds of Canada banknotes than identifying counterfeit Canadian Journey banknotes.
Reception
A report by The Canadian Press stated that residents of Lunenburg were displeased with the design of the $100 banknote, as the reverse of the same denomination in the Scenes of Canada series featured a vignette of the fishing town. Many younger Canadians were unfamiliar with the Red Ensign, and thought the flag flown atop the buildings on the $5 and $10 banknote was the flag of the United States, precipitating media coverage known as the "flag flap".
Currency collectors stated that the optical security device was not aesthetically pleasing, and that its placement and appearance were poor. Some compared it to the Australian commemorative $10 note issued in 1988, which had a reflective holographic badge featuring James Cook, as an example of a more aesthetically pleasing design.
Collecting
The Bank of Canada printed uncut sheets of the $5 banknotes with serial numbers between 6,000,000 and 6,939,999 and prefix ANU. Some of these were released for sale to collectors in 2002 when the Bank of Canada also issued the Lasting Impressions collectors set. This set contained two uncirculated $5 banknotes, one from this series and the other from the Canadian Journey Series, with matching serial numbers. The banknotes were in an embossed folder also containing an information booklet with the history of the denomination and the features of each banknote. A similar set for $10 banknotes had been released in 2001.
Legacy
A study commissioned by the Bank of Canada in 1994 stated that about 8,000 blind Canadians do not benefit from the large numerals or distinct colouration of the banknotes. In 1990, the Bank of Canada, via the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, had begun distributing to these individuals a free electronic device capable of determining the denomination of a banknote by reading the vertical bars adjacent to the serial number. Each device cost the Bank of Canada about C$300, and 50–60 devices were requested every month, mostly from elderly individuals who used the device at home.
Withdrawing the $1 banknote of earlier series and discontinuing printing of the $2 banknotes increased consumer use of the loonie and toonie. This decreased the costs of producing money and decreased the operational costs for some businesses, such as the Toronto Transit Commission, which estimated it would save C$800,000 annually by not having to "unfold, sort, and count $1 bills".
The appearance of high-quality counterfeit $100 banknotes in 2001 from Windsor to Montreal resulted in about 10% of retailers to post signs that they would refuse to accept $100 banknotes in a cash transaction.