It seems our Canadian 50 and 100 dollar polymer bills are pretty durable and long-lasting except when it comes to one thing: HEAT.

Various reports have the "indestructible" notes melting into a mass of paper and goo when exposed to intense high temps such as the inside of a car during a heat wave. So now we add to the rule: DO NOT leave children, pets, seniors or money unattended in a vehicle. Of course not leaving money in a car is a good practice in any climate.

COLD HARD CASH. WARM? NOT AS MUCH

A man in Halifax put his wallet on his toaster oven while toasting a bagel. Later he noticed his 3-$100's looked like a shriveled hunk of bagel spread. The Cambridge Times ran a story about a man who'd received 8-$100 bills in a tin box as a Christmas bonus. He left them near a heater and a day later the contents looked like something left by Santa's reindeer as opposed to Santa.

Anecdotely there are stories of bills having melted together after being left in a hot car. The Toronto Star ran an experiment where they put two $50's and two $100's in a laundromat dryer for 40 minutes and they were not damaged.

The Bank of Canada said they tested the bills up to 140 degrees C and down to minus 75. They DO admit to processing 197 damaged bills since circulation of 175 million notes began in November of 2011. Most of those were torn or burned. The B of C will redeem damaged notes once they are verified at their lab in Ottawa. (On a side note: Wow, they have a lab in Ottawa. I wonder what that costs us.)

Here's something else I found out during this story. The same people who complain about a penny costing 1.6 cents to produce, thus not making it worthwhile, can produce a new polymer $100 bill for 19 cents. Their flawed logic in dropping the penny only serves to help devalue our concept of money

Meanwhile, "Hey buddy, got change for a pile of goo?" LEAVE COMMENTS.

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