Plastic tested for currency
 

Associated Press

By David Skidmore

1998

The familiar phrase "paying with plastic" may take on an entirely new meaning. The U.S. government is testing new materials for the nation's folding money - including a tough but flexible plastic.

Advocates say plastic, or polymer, bills last longer than paper, are more difficult to counterfeit and don't get all wrinkly if you accidentally leave them in a clothes pocket on washing day. They're less prone to rejection by change machines and, when worn out, can be recycled into other plastic products.

Skeptics worry the public would reject them, that they would force an expensive retooling of currency-sorting and counting machines and that such a radical change could subtly undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar.

The U.S. Treasury Department already is in the midst of a multiyear redesign of the nation's currency, the first in nearly six decades. It introduced new $100 notes in 1996 and new $50 bills last year and plans new $20 bills later this year.

The new paper bills feature enlarged portraits, watermarks, a numeral in color-shifting ink and a polymer security thread. Officials aren't sure they want to take another big step.

"We're pretty far down the road from making any decision about proceeding," said Treasury Assistant Secretary Howard Schloss.

Nevertheless, the department's Bureau of Printing and Engraving is running extensive tests on a variety of materials, including a plastic developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia and a paper-plastic sandwich produced by a Canadian company, Domtar Inc. of Montreal.

"We and every other bank note printer in the world are taking a look at this material," said Thomas Ferguson, the bureau's acting director. "We've run some print trials and we'll be running some more."

The government won't say what its timetable is, but industry officials assume such a change wouldn't occur before 2000 or 2001.

Australia issued the world's first plastic currency in 1988 - a $10 note commemorating its bicentennial. It finished converting all of its notes to the new material in 1996.

"We're very comfortable and very happy with them," said Neil Mackrell, the reserve bank's chief representative in New York.

Australia also has produced notes for Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Kuwait, Western Somoa, Singapore, Brunei, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

A blue polymer 50-baht note from Thailand - worth $1.32 - is thinner than a U.S. paper note and feels slick on the back. But in spots, such as the portrait on the front, it has an engraved feel similar to a traditional banknote. It folds readily but can't be torn with the fingers.

The level of printing detail is as fine or finer than a paper note. And it features a small clear window, embossed with the numeral 50, aimed at preventing counterfeiters from using home computer printers.

Secret Service officials have been concerned particularly about the growing use of computer ink-jet technology to produce fake U.S. bills. They're relatively poor in quality, but some have been passed to busy or unobservant cash handlers.

"A polymer note incorporating a clear Mylar window would definitely foil counterfeiting by personal computer and ink-jet printer," said U.S. Congressional Representative Michael Castle, R-DE., who has scheduled a hearing to examine the growing threat. "The $64,000 question remains, what sort of public acceptance would it receive?"

Australia, in its promotional material, says its plastic notes last four times as long as conventional currency - and provide big cost savings.

But Lanse Crane, the chief executive of Crane & Co. Inc. of Dalton, MA., the company that manufacturers paper for U.S. bills, said Australia's figures are based on a seven-month life for a paper bill. The most-circulated U.S. bill, the $1 note, now lasts 18 months.

And he argued that switching to plastic, even if it proved more durable, risked decreasing worldwide acceptance of U.S. currency.

Kawika Daguio of the American Bankers Association said bankers worry any change might confuse the public. The United States, unlike other nations, never withdraws its currency from circulation. Thus cash handlers potentially could be forced to deal with three different designs for each denomination - old-style paper, new-style paper and plastic, or a paper-plastic sandwich.

"Bankers are the ones who answer all the questions, and it's their lines which would be held up by questions," Mr. Daguio said. "Our policy is, we'd rather not go there."