An interesting item was buried deep within the federal government's 2018 budget released on Tuesday.
It appears the days of the rather rare $1, $2, $25, $500 and even $1000 bank notes are officially coming to an end.
We support the government’s initiative in today’s budget to seek the authority to remove legal tender status from certain older bank notes. Find out what it means for you: https://t.co/LCcBBkniqj pic.twitter.com/MaJM6Eygob
— Bank of Canada (@bankofcanada) February 27, 2018
According to The Bank of Canada, the latest federal budget is seeking “to remove legal tender status from Canadian bank notes.”
“The Bank of Canada supports this initiative because it can help the Bank ensure that bank notes used by Canadians are current, in good condition, easy to use and difficult to counterfeit,” it said in a statement.
“Removing … these older notes is expected to have little impact on most Canadians, as these denominations have not been produced in decades and are rarely used in transactions,” states the Bank of Canada. “Importantly, removal of legal tender status does not mean these notes will lose their face value; the Bank of Canada will continue to honour them.”
The decision was made as part of a plan to crack down on counterfeiting, money laundering and tax evasion, meaning the government will eventually not allow those bills to be used to pay for goods and services.
However, the Bank of Canada did not specify when the bills will cease to be legal tender.
While the Bank of Canada stopped printing the $1,000 note in 2000, there are still an estimated 700,000 of those bills still in circulation across the country.
