2018-02-28 Wed

The Government of Canada and Bank of Canada are planning to remove legal tender status from some banknotes. They will take old $1, $2, $25, $500 and $1,000 notes out of circulation. Every Banknote issued by the Bank of Canada since it was first established in 1935, is still redeemable.

Currently, all notes are accepted as legal tender for transactions. Some rare Canadian notes have a value which is higher than their actual face value since they are sought after by collectors. Once the notes are removed from circulation, they can be redeemed from Bank of Canada.

By removing the legal tender status from older notes, the bank can ensure that newer notes are in circulation. These notes have better security features due to which forgery is in control. Their condition is also much better than the older notes.

The $1 and the $2 notes were replaced by coins in 1989 and 1996 respectively. The $25 commemorative note and the $500 note were discontinued in 1935. The $1,000 note was not produced after 2000.

Notes which will go out for circulation include the first series (1935), the bilingual series (1937), Canadian Landscape series (1954), Scenes of Canada series (1969–79) and Birds of Canada series (1986).

Image Courtesy Bank of Canada