Isle of Man goes plastic
 

The Globe and Mail

24.11.83

Douglas, Isle of Man (AP)

Credit cards have threatened to displace cash with plastic, and now the Isle of Man has gone all the way—issuing a nearly indestructible plastic bank note.

"You can't tear it with you bare hands, it won't fade, it doesn't get dirty and it's cheap," says chief accountant Christopher Tovell. "They cost the same to mint, but we won't have to replace nearly as many."

He said the new bill, issued only in the £1 (about $1.82 Canadian) denomination, has a life of five years, compared with a paper note's none-month lifespan.

The Isle of Man, a dependency of the British Crown in the Irish Sea, issues its own money and its Legislature rules over local matters.

In tests, paper pounds tore after 5,000 folds, but plastic notes showed no sign of strain after 500,000, Tovell said.

"I even put one in the oven and it only shrunk a little bit."