Canadian Journey
Canadian Journey is the sixth series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar designed and circulated by the Bank of Canada. It succeeded the 1986 Birds of Canada banknote series. The first banknote of the Canadian Journey series issued into circulation was the $10 bill on 17 January 2001, and the last to be issued was the $50 bill on 17 November 2004. The series was succeeded by the 2011 Frontier series, the banknotes of which were first issued into circulation from 2011 to 2013.
This series introduced new security features and discontinued the use of planchettes, a security feature common since the earliest Canadian banknote series. All banknotes have tactile features to assist people who have visual impairments to identify the notes.
Designs on the reverse of each banknote in the series were based on themes of fundamental Canadian values and achievements. The $20 banknote was awarded 2004 Banknote of the Year by the International Bank Note Society.
Design
The Bank of Canada began the process for a banknote series to replace Birds of Canada in 1997 by establishing a currency development team. It faced several constraints, including the use of a more secure substrate, addressing increased counterfeiting, improving accessibility for those with visual impairments, and ensuring a financially feasible production because of budgetary constraints. The Ministry of Finance was involved in the design process, providing ideas for banknote themes for the series.The formal design of the banknotes began in 1998 and was performed by a team led by art director Jorge Peral at the Canadian Bank Note Company, which also had members from the British American Bank Note Company. The team created model designs that were reviewed by focus groups. The Bank of Canada had considered using portraits of famous Canadian artists and inventors, instead of those of the Queen of Canada and former prime ministers, but ultimately rejected the idea at the request of Jean Chrétien, who preferred the familiar portraits.
Early prototype designs included prominent portraits and vignettes of parliamentary buildings similar to those of the final design. The reverse of each denomination featured an animal indigenous to Canada in vertical portrait orientation. The set of themes that would ultimately be chosen had to adhere to modern banknote security design principles and "reflect fundamental values recognized and cherished across the country". These values included Canadian culture, diversity, achievements, and that the concepts could be rendered artistically. Two elements of the design would not be changed: the portraits featured on each denomination and the dominant colour for each denomination, both of which were to be the same as those for the respective denomination in the Birds of Canada series.
It was the first time the Bank of Canada involved the public in the design process for a banknote series, conducting telephone surveys in 1997 to obtain public opinion about design themes and selecting individuals to participate in focus groups to review design selections. Children throughout Canada submitted designs to the Bank of Canada via their elementary schools, and over 4,000 Canadians participated in the design process.
All banknotes in the series feature a stylised Flag of Canada in the upper right-hand corner of the obverse, and measured. Each banknote also included an excerpt from literary works reflecting the denomination's theme.
Security
Because of the increasing proliferation of affordable consumer colour photocopiers, inkjet printers, and scanners, the security features of Birds of Canada was becoming increasingly easier to circumvent. As a result, the Bank of Canada undertook development of the Canadian Journey Series, during which time it also developed a new anti-counterfeiting strategy.In addition to improving the security of the substrate and the integration of security features in the banknote designs, the Bank of Canada also launched a public education campaign, actively deterred counterfeiting by closer collaboration with law enforcement, and accelerated the removal and destruction of banknotes from older series from circulation. Moreover, it actively discourages financial transactions using banknotes from older series.
Substrate
In the mid 1990s, the Bank of Canada tested a new substrate, named "Luminus" and produced by Domtar, for use in printing banknotes. It printed 100,000 experimental $5 banknotes, using the Birds of Canada design, having a substrate of polymer core between two layers of cotton paper. The notes were issued into circulation, and the test found "no major problems" with the substrate. It was chosen as the substrate for the $5 and $10 banknotes in June 1998 and for all other denominations in September 1999. In December 1999, the manufacturer withdrew its offer to supply the substrate because of technical production issues and its market viability. The Bank of Canada found a cotton fibre substrate with "characteristics similar to those of Luminus" on which to print the $10 banknote it would issue in January 2001 and later for the $5 banknote issued in March 2002. The similarity of the substrate to Luminus would enable a transition to it once production issues were resolved, as the Bank of Canada had acquired Canada-wide rights to the substrate and continued to develop it, but the project was ultimately discontinued in 2002. As a result, the Bank of Canada chose to use the standard watermarked paper, but required suppliers to include a "windowed metallic thread" in the substrate.Features
Incorporating the desired security features into the design was a "challenging aspect of the design process". These features included: intaglio printing, such as the raised ink in some numerals; microprinting, such as in the descriptions adjacent to the building vignettes on the obverse of each banknote; a holographic stripe adjacent to the portrait, with iridescent maple leaves shifting from a matte to shiny gold when tilted; a watermark of the portrait and denomination's value in an empty space near the building vignettes; a see-through number with disjoint components appearing as a complete numeral when viewed with background lighting; a colour-shifting thread embedded on one side of the banknote, on which is printed the banknote's denomination; and features visible when exposed to ultraviolet light.Features implemented with raised ink on the obverse of each banknote include the large numeral at the bottom right, the shoulder of the portrait, and the words "Bank of Canada" and "Banque du Canada" in a vertical stripe to the left of the holographic metallic strip. A genuine banknote from this series will not fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light except for the coat of arms and the words "Bank of Canada", "Banque du Canada", "Ten", and "Dix" over the left portion of the portrait. Randomly distributed white security fibres embedded in the substrate will glow red.
When a banknote is backlit, the "ghost-like" portrait in the watermark will become visible and the colour-shifting thread is revealed as a set of windows along a continuous line that shift colour when tilted. The maple leaves on the holographic metallic strip appear to move when the note is tilted, and each is split by a colour change.
The series also excluded former security features, such as the planchettes, green dots randomly occurring on the surface of the banknotes. Planchettes were replaced by coloured fibres embedded in the paper that fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Each banknote features the EURion constellation. On the obverse, the pattern occurs in a band between the portrait's shoulder and the signatures of the Governor of the Bank of Canada and deputy governor in the lower right of the banknote. All but the $50 banknote also contain several instances of the constellation on the lower portion of the building vignette at the centre of the banknote. On the reverse, the $5 and $10 banknotes have a visible plain yellow EURion constellation pattern. The pattern is "clearly identifiable" on the $20 and $100 banknotes, which encloses each dot of the constellation in a blank circle. On the $50 banknote, the pattern is nearly undetectable, as a pattern of fine red lines masks the yellow dots; these are revealed when viewing the blue channel of a digital image of the banknote.
Accessibility
The Bank of Canada began investigating integration of accessibility features into banknotes with the passage of the Canadian Human Rights Act in 1977. Its research indicated that Braille was not a viable option, as not all visually impaired individuals are able to read it, and denominations of different sizes are not financially viable. It thus chose to develop features that could be identified by a banknote reader, which it implemented in the Birds of Canada series.For the Canadian Journey Series, the Bank of Canada and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind held consultations with "experts in the fields of vision and tactility perception", during which several desirable features were identified. The Bank of Canada concluded that accessibility features should enable an individual to identify a banknote's denomination "quickly, independently, privately, and with the note in any orientation" and that it should implement features assisting individuals with a range of vision impairments. It again rejected denominations having banknotes of different size for being inconsistent with the use of banknote processing equipment such as automated teller machines, vending machines, self checkout machines, slot machines, ticket and parking lot machines, and note sorting equipment.
This series was the first issued by the Bank of Canada to incorporate a tactile feature to allow individuals with visual impairments to determine a banknote's denomination. This takes the form of Braille blocks consisting of six dots arranged in two parallel columns, each denomination having a different pattern of blocks, placed on the top right-hand corner when facing the obverse. The feature was developed by the Canadian Bank Note Company, which collaborated with Queen's University tactility perception expert for symbol design. It produced 48 sample designs, of which six were selected for final consideration based on tactility, production techniques, and banknote thickness. These were tested with collaboration of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and the Canadian Council of the Blind by individuals with functional blindness. The feature was considered appealing as it did not require individuals to use assistive technology in order to identify a banknote's denomination.
The colour for each banknote denomination was updated to enable individuals to more easily distinguish between them, particularly the brown of the $100 banknote and the red of the $50 banknote, along with the purple of the $10 banknote and the blue of the $5 banknote. The design of each denomination also included large, high-contrast numerals and a barcode, each identifying the respective denomination. The numerals were about 30% larger than in the Birds of Canada series and were chosen after testing conducted by vision experts at the University of Waterloo.
The electronic banknote reader distributed for Canadians requiring assistive technologies was also updated to be able to scan and identify these banknotes, and was half the size and weight than that used for the Birds of Canada series. It was also improved by adding tone and vibration output modes in addition to the speech synthesis voice output of the earlier model. Its development cost about.
Approximately 3% of a banknote's production cost is associated with the tactile feature.