There is much talk here in the lower-48 about doing away with the dollar bill and replacing it with a coin (let’s face it, we’re just resistant to change), but there is one potential roadblock: the vending machine industry. Canada has run into this problem; the Bank of Canada recently released plastic-based $20 bills to replace the older cotton-paper-based banknotes. It turns out, however, that they are “indigestible” to vending machines.

Each vending machine or other device that processes bank notes — such as self-serve checkouts, parking-permit dispensers and even ATMs — can require up to 15 minutes of reprogramming administered on site by a technician using a laptop. The labour-intensive process is costly, time-consuming and follows weeks or months of software development, testing and training by manufacturers and service providers. Lockie’s group had asked the Bank of Canada to release its new plastic $5 and $10 bills at the same time as the $20s to allow for a single recalibration visit to each machine. But the bank decided to issue the two lower denominations simultaneously later this year, forcing vending-machine owners to plan another round of site visits in 2013, absorbing the costs.

I recall some years ago when the redesigned $20s came out here in the U.S. and the self-serve checkout machines at my local supermarket chain couldn’t handle them for a while. Funny how you take these things for granted, not realizing what a headache something as seemingly minor as a monetary design change can cause.