Canadian fifty-dollar bill

The Canadian $50 bill is a banknote of the Canadian dollar. It is sometimes dispensed by ATMs, but not as commonly as the $20 bill.

The current 50-dollar bill is predominantly red in colour. The front features a portrait of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the coat of arms, and a picture of the Peace Tower of the Parliament buildings. Security features visible from the front include a hologram strip along the left side, depicting the number "50" alternated with maple leaves; a watermark of King's portrait; and a broken-up number 50, which resolves itself when backlit. The reverse side depicts themes in Canadian human rights history, such as the Famous Five celebrating the Persons case, and a volunteer medal commemorating Therese Casgrain; it also has a quotation from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The reverse also has a visible security feature: an interleaved metallic strip, reading '50 CAN' repeatedly along its length. Yellow dots representing the EURion constellation can be found on both sides (and on all 2001 series notes). As well as textured printing, this new 2004 design incorporates a special tactile feature similar to Braille dots for the blind indicating the denomination.

An older design remains in circulation as of late 2004. It features, on the front, a portrait of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the coat of arms, and a picture of the Centre Block of Parliament. On the reverse side is a wilderness scene with a Snowy Owl. It also had a holographic sticker showing the amount in the top left side, which changes from gold to green when tilted. The front has a wavy background of extremely small but still clear numeral 50s. This "micro-printed" background is very hard to copy. Some of the printing on a 50 is textured so that it is easy to feel, quite different from normal printing.

All Canadian banknotes underwent a major redesign in 1991, partially to incorporate some of the latest anti-forgery methods. Bills continue to be improved, with the latest design placed into circulation on November 17, 2004. Notes are printed on paper composed of pure cotton at two Ottawa companies contracted for the purpose. They are the Canadian Bank Note Company and BA International Inc., a part of the Giesecke & Devrient GmbH group of companies.

Each bill in the 1991 series was sprinkled with special green ink dots that glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. The ink can be scraped off, so worn bills tend to have fewer, if any, glowing dots. These were replaced with more permanent ultraviolet-detected threads in the new bills, as well as an ink imprint of the coat of arms.

As with all modern Canadian banknotes, all text is in both English and French.

External links

* [http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/index.html Bank of Canada banknote site]