Took note of the new plastic $10 bills? Most didn't
 

The Straits Times

05.05.04

By Joann Tan

The polymer notes hit the streets yesterday, but there were no queues for them at banks of ATMs—in fact, few noticed the change

New $10 plastic bills hit the streets here yesterday, but few took notice of the smooth-as-silk red notes.

This was probably what the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had hoped for, after the unsuccessful attempt to introduce $50 polymer notes 14 years ago.

Seven banks issued the $10 notes islandwide. But a Straits Times check at a DBS branch in Toa Payoh found no queue for the notes, which are being phased in to allow banks and businesses to fine-tune their machines.

About 10 million notes are being made available.

Crowds were also absent at the other DBS branches as well as at the 11 ATMs dispensing the new notes, said a DBS spokesman.

The notes are also available at 11 OCBC ATMs, but customers can obtain them from 61 branches too, said an OCBC spokesman.

They can be obtained as well at United Overseas Bank's six ATMs at its Parkway Parade, Orchard, Bishan and Bukit Batok Central branches.

Most people interviewed were indifferent to the new $10 bills, unlike in 1990, when the $50 polymer notes were found to be sticky and difficult to fold. Also, ATM machines then could not dispense them.

Said sales executive Low Siew Lek, 50, at the DBS Toa Payoh branch yesterday: "To me, bank notes are all the same. I wouldn't bother about the differences."

The design. and colour of the $10 note were not changed but among its new features are two see-through windows and a new signature—that of Mr Lee Hsien Loong, the current MAS chairman, a post previously held by Dr Richard Hu.

The polymer notes can last three to four times longer than the current paper bills.

Director of coins and bank notes auction house Mavin International, Mr Phei Chiet Cheung, said it was good the change went unnoticed. "People are usually resistant to change. So it's a good sign when they don't mind the new notes," he said.

For many companies, it made no difference.

Parking operators Metro Parking and Elite Parking use only CashCard—or electronic road pricing-based machines.

Singapore Post's self-automated machines, which allow people to pay their bills, operate only on Nets or coin transactions.

For now, transport company SMRT is among those changing its machines at its 51 MRT and 14 LRT station. Ticketing machines at nine train stations have been calibrated and the rest will be done in phases, it said.