Lisa Mills, slot manager for Casino Lethbridge, holds up some of the new polymer $100 bills. The new bill is nearly counterfeit-proof thanks to holographic elements and other security features. It¹s not the only bill that¹s getting a makeover: the $50 bill will follow in March, with the $20, $10 and $5 bill finally coming in 2013. Herald photo by David Rossiter

Caroline Zentner
lethbridge herald
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Canada's new $100 bills have security features retailers feel confident about but the changeover has come with some headaches.
At Casino Lethbridge, the bills were in circulation before the machines had the ability to accept them.
"When it came to the new bills, when they were first released it was a little bit hairy here because all of the bills were released and none of the technology was out there to count them," said Lisa Mills, slot manager at Casino Lethbridge. "We had to count it by hand."
Mills said the introduction of a new bill usually comes with a grace period but that didn't happen this time.
"Some of our slot machines accepted them but the majority of them did not. They can't be used in ATMs; they can't be used in self-redemption machines. None of them were ready for it. So we turned around and went from using $100s as a regular currency to going back to $20s. The $100s were useless to us," Mills said.
The necessary technological changes have been made over the past week or so.
"Now it's fairly smooth sailing," Mills said. "Our ATMs are still not compatible. We have one that has been upgraded just on a trial basis to make sure there are no issues with it."
Mills said she's impressed with the features on the new bills and has confidence in their safety.
"With the new $100 bills, the security features in them are fabulous. It feels a lot better knowing that they're safer because of everything that's in them. I don't know how anybody is going to recreate them because of the fact that they are so different," Mills said.
Retailers are also noticing the new bills are more difficult to handle.
"My reaction to it is a little mixed," said Keith McArthur, manager of Nevada Bob's. "I like the concept and the fact that it's going to last longer but I'm a little ambivalent about when the $5s and $10s come out in 2013."
McArthur said he went to the bank to get change before the Christmas holiday and came away with new $5 and $10 bills. Because new bills can be hard to separate, McArthur crumples them before putting them in the till so they're easier for staff to separate.
"It's not much of an issue with $100s but when it turns into $5s and $10s that could definitely be an issue because these things just do not peel apart and you can't crumple them up," he said. "That's the only issue I can see about them."
McArthur said most transactions are completed using credit or debit cards so worry about counterfeit $100 bills is rare.
"What a counterfeiter is looking for is change. They want to get real money for their funny money," he said.
Rob Fairfield, a partner in Fairfield Appliances, encountered the same difficulty separating the bills.
"They don't count the way you expect them to," he said. "I have no issues but they are distinctly harder to count than the older money was. The security feature that's on the strip seems really well thought out."
The Bank of Canada issued the new $100 bill Nov. 14 and fanned them out across the country over the next few weeks. The unique bill has a large window containing metallic elements. The note's theme is medical innovation. It features the portrait of Sir Robert Borden on the front. Images on the back of the bill depict a researcher at a microscope, the DNA strand, the ECG (electrocardiogram) and an insulin bottle.
Each note in the new series will celebrate frontiers. The $50 bill, to be issued next March, shows the Canadian Coast Guard Ship 'Amundsen,' a research icebreaker. In late 2012, the $20 bill depicting the Canadian National Vimy Memorial will be issued. In 2013 the $10 bill, with the 'Canadian' train, and the $5, with the Canadarm2 and Dextre, will be issued.