It's ironic, in that her likeness is a symbol of progress in Canadian society, for it appears that the technology hasn't kept up with the recently-instituted $10 bill.
Hundreds of thousands of cash-handling machines across the country have had to be upgraded to handle Canada's distinctive new note, featuring a vertical portrait of Nova Scotia civil rights advocate Viola Desmond, while some others still awaiting changes are rejecting the distinctive banknotes.
Ensuring vending and other machines can read the new polymer note requires a software upgrade for each device.
The owner of one outlet, ironically enough, in Nova Scotia, said his 125 devices simply won't accept the new bills. Upgrading them all, which he has not yet had a chance to do, costs about $10 each (!), excluding driving and labour time to get to the machines at various locations.
Since their introduction in mid-November, the Bank of Canada has made 19.6 million of the new notes available to financial institutions and almost 16.9 million of those are now considered to be in circulation. By contrast, a total of 158 million $10 notes were in circulation at the end of November, the central bank said.
The main issue about the $10 bill is that it's vertical in its image, which has thrown off vending machines, and banks have to make sure their machines are all updated.
