Bank Notes

Protect Your Money: Check Your Bank Notes

Bank notes have security features that are reliable, quick, and easy to use. Make it a habit to check these features whenever you accept cash. You'll avoid being stuck with a fake bill and help protect the cash supply that we all use. Here's how.

Pass your cursor over the numbers to see the security features on Canada's most recent bank notes.

 

See-through number. Look through the note. Irregular marks on the front and back of the note form a complete number, just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Raised ink (intaglio).Touch the words BANK OF CANADA · BANQUE DU CANADA, the large number 20, the portrait, and the coat of arms. They feel thicker.

Metallic stripe (holographic stripe). Tilt the note back and forth. Bright, multicoloured numbers and maple leaves move and change colour. There is a colour-split within each maple leaf, and smaller numbers appear in the background of the stripe.

Ghost image (watermark). Look through the note. A small, ghost-like image of the portrait and denomination number appear on the front and back.

Dashes (security thread). Look through the note. A solid vertical line appears inside the paper. Tilt the note back and forth. Metallic dashes on the back of the note shift from gold to green. Small text (CAN20) is printed in the dashes.

UV (fluorescence). When verifying the UV feature, always check other security features too. Look at the note under UV (ultraviolet) light. The text BANQUE DU CANADA 20 BANK OF CANADA glows in red and yellow over the portrait. Red and yellow fibres are scattered across both sides of the note.