Why do so few economies use plastic currency?

I know Canada is making the change, slowly. Paper money might be cheaper to make (at first) – but it depends what type of paper and how much security is put into it. I think we can save a lot of money by making currency that lasts much longer. I think most countries are slow to change over because change is pretty much always a slow process. Like the move towards cleaner fuel and such. That’s about all I can come up with ..I should be in bed, lol.

I have yet to see this polymer currency though.

I would assume it’s like any other change within a government: It just takes a while to have all parties debate the merits and deficiencies of making such a change.

On a nitpicky note: American money (and possibly other currencies as well) is actually made of a type of cloth, not paper (25% linen, 75% cotton).

I can’t speak for other countries, but in the US, I suspect it is for a number of reasons. It would be pretty expensive to convert all of the mints and to design new money. There are also a number of other things for our government to be worried about so changing physical money is pretty far down on the list, if it’s even on the list at all. I think a final, important point is that credit is becoming much more common than it used to be. People still pay for things more with cash, but you can’t pay with cash when buying things online and in person, credit and debit cards are becoming more and more frequently used.

Here in the US people get antsy when you start talking about changing our money system. Some of the super crazies may call it a government attempt at control or socialism or authoritarianism (totally not kidding on either of those).

They have floated the idea here in the US multiple times of removing pennies from circulation, or turning dollars into a coin.. as the Federal government loses hundreds of millions of dollars on each per year. But every time it gets shot down by people who don’t want our money system to change at all. I would suspect that something similar would happen if they tried to make our money out of plastic of any kind. Talking heads on “news” stations would probably rip into the idea and call it un-American or something.

(long term there’s also the issue of possible plastic shortages when oil becomes an issue)

Wow, I have never heard of plastic money. It sounds pretty cool. Is it something like those plastic, see-through gift cards from Starbucks?

@tedd That’s a shame people are so resistant to change. For a country that tips so much, you’d think brightly coloured notes would be ideal.

@Skaggfacemutt Nah, they’re basically the same dimensions as fabric notes, but they feel like plastic. If you search for Australian money, you can see what they look like.

Canada replaced the fastest worn specie with coins like the one dollar looney (it has a loon bird on the back) and the two-ney. The secret to their success is that they took the paper for the same values out of circulation. Here there have been several attempts to get folks to adopt the coin dollars but we don’t like ‘em much when given the option.

@dabbler You forgot to mention American opposition to doing many things the way “Socialist” nations (basically anybody other than the US) does. Healthcare, fuel-efficient cars, the metric system… all things you won’t see in this country if people have their way, and probably not even if the government makes it mandatory.

@dabbler Most of us spell it “toonie” actually ;)

@iphigeneia I will go look right now.

@dabbler My kids brought some of those coins home. They are neat-looking, half gold and half silver. I would love to have a necklace or charm bracelet made out of them.

@Skaggfacemutt Damn straight we got awesome looking money

@XOIIO I like the look of our money too. The different colours. :)

I wonder if the plastic money will use the same style and colours as our current paper money.