Stick your $200 bill idea in a deep dark place, Bank of Canada!

A story in today's Montreal Gazette reports on two studies commissioned by the Bank of Canada in 2005 that examined the Canadian currency system. One of the new "currency models" would see $5 coins and $200 bills introduced to our coin purses and wallets some time in the not so distant future.

It seems that they have understood from the start that taking the five dollar bill out of circulation and replacing it with a coin might not be very well received. They do not, however, seem to have the foggiest clue about their $200 bill idea.

Not too long ago, I decided not to bother getting into an argument with a gas station clerk about using a crisp new $100 bill to pay for $70 of gasoline and convenience store merchandise. My payment for these goods with that note was refused, citing some company "policy" where no bills larger than $50 are to be accepted. I would have loved to grab another $30 of merchandise and leave in a puff of smoke after dropping the $100 payment on the counter, but I'm hoping to get a job offer soon and having a police report (right or wrong) with my name on it right now would not advisable... even if an ensuing court case might better the retail side of Canadians' lives from coast to coast.

One hundred dollars doesn't buy what it once did. One wouldn't have to stretch things too thin to equate the purchasing power of today's $100 bill with that of a $20 bill from twenty or thirty years ago. That must be why the Bank of Canada believes that introducing a $200 bill is worth contemplating. Though the economy may make the use of $100 or $200 bills more commonplace and convenient when handling larger quantities of cash, virtually nobody will accept one of these bills despite the Bank of Canada's continuous efforts to make counterfeiting more difficult as each year passes.

Here's a bulletin, retailers, $10 and $20 bills are counterfeited much more regularly nowadays than $100 bills are. When will "policy" dictate that only debit and credit cards will be accepted? After all, coins should be outlawed too due to the greedy and irritating banking industry that has recently made coin deposits a chargeable transaction... so businesses won't want to accept bills because they can be copied and coins because it costs too much to bring them to the bank!

All this to say that our currency system doesn't seem to be broken right now... it works reasonably well as it is. If this new "system" were to be introduced right now, I'd have over $27 in change on me right now with the twonies, loonies and three five dollar bills I currently have in my wallet. Forget it. As for $200 bills, find me a gas station that charges a buck a litre or more for its product AND will accept a $100 bill as payment and then I'll think about buying into the idea that we need a $200 bill floating around.

Until then, stick to reality, folks - nobody wants a $5 coin and nobody will take a $200 bill. Any money spent studying our money right now is an outright waste.