Chris Edwards

    2045038940@qq.com

    AS an Australian, I have spent 20 years living with polymer bank notes. The AU$5 (US$3.75) has been made of plastic since 1992 and all bank notes in Australia have been made of plastic since 1996.

    This has resulted in vastly reduced amounts of counterfeit money in Australia. And as the criminals catch up in terms of technology, the central bank is already working on the next generation of bank notes with new and improved security measures. In April, the Reserve Bank of Australia announced a brand new AU$5 note, which includes a window from top to bottom.

    I have often wondered why China has not headed down the same path. We hear such regular news about counterfeit money floating around. I am sure all the readers have heard anecdotal stories about people getting fake bank notes from an ATM, and being unable to put them back into the ATM to get real ones. In late April, I received a fake 50-yuan (US$7.51) note.

    I applaud the efforts of the People’s Bank of China with the introduction of the new 100-yuan note, with stronger security measures. I have not heard any reports of criminals counterfeiting those notes yet, but I fear that it is only a matter of time before an enterprising group does so.

    That is why I believe that it would be appropriate for the People’s Bank of China to consider polymer bank notes. There appears to be a movement towards removing the 1 yuan note from circulation to make 1 yuan coins the standard across the country. Personally, I believe this should be continued for the 1- and 5-jiao notes, as I find them annoying in my wallet, and the coins are, in my opinion, far more efficient.

    What are the costs associated with such a move? Obviously, there are costs associated with changing the machinery that makes the bank notes, but those costs are one-off. It is more expensive to make each individual bank note, however the bank notes last longer.

    The fact that the People’s Bank of China would not have to print as many after the initial run to replace the damaged or destroyed notes makes this a cost-effective alternative to traditional paper notes. In addition, the polymer notes can be made of recycled plastic, which encourages additional recycling activities at a national level.

    Polymer notes are both more difficult to counterfeit and reduce printing costs.

    (The author is an Australian teacher of English teaching in Futian.)