JUST over a week since Jamaica’s new banknotes have been rolled out, Jamaicans are slowly adjusting, but for some, the adjustments are coming with financial losses.

This reporter took a trip to Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew — one of Jamaica’s transportation hubs — to speak with some of the people who would be handling cash more frequently throughout the day. At first, patrons expressed dislike for the new notes, when pressed about why, they mostly pointed to the texture of the money.

“You will easily give away these monies, they easily stick together,” Danny, a vendor in Half-Way-Tree shared with the Jamaica Observer. He explained that in the fast-paced business of streetside vending, selling to passengers through bus windows and other motorists on the go, it will be easy to make the mistake of giving away two $1,000 notes instead of one, due to the material the notes are made of.

“See there, they stick together,” he said while showing the Business Observer how easily the notes attach to each other. “When it’s wet, it sticks on. If a man seh ‘sell me a juice deh’, and you say all right, when I trying to give the change quickly, mi all a give him two [notes instead of one]. And when a man asks to change $500, you realise he’s giving you two of them, instead of one [because they stick easily together].”

The new banknotes are made from polymer, a thin, flexible plastic which is water and oil resistant, and according to the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), the unique texture of polymer banknotes makes them harder to counterfeit. And although the BOJ says the redesign of the banknotes ensures that “each denomination is clearly distinguishable given the distinct colours,” for now, those who handle them are still adjusting in recognising and differentiating among them and the older notes which are still in circulation.

Danny shared an experience where he inadvertently ended up not paying for his lunch because the cashier at a shop was confused by the appearance of the note.

“I sent $1,000 to the shop to buy snacks and I received double the money. I get back the $1,000 and I get the juice free and the bun,” he said.

” [It] looks different, it doesn’t look like real money, it’s thin and I have to look at it properly before handling to return change otherwise you will give it away,” said Dwaine, a bus conductor.

With the new appearance, it’s taking some vendors a longer time for them to differentiate a $500 bill from a $5,000 bill and a $100 note from a $1,000 note.

“A man gave me one of the new $500 notes and one of the old [one] thousand dollar notes. He took five donuts [and] I was there how long [trying to figure out the total I got]. I didn’t even know how much change to give back to the man cause’ I’m saying is $6,000 he gave me. I give him back all the thousand dollars,” Jeffrey, a vendor in Half-Way-Tree, shared with the Business Observer. He said it was the honesty of the customer that saved him from financial losses by telling him he should get only $100 as change. Jeffrey is now relying on the public’s honesty as he tries to get use to the new banknotes.

Among bus conductors, it’s typical for them to fold the notes to hold them between their fingers. While the new notes can be folded with a few reinforcing efforts, the BOJ has warned against the practice, but old habits die hard.

“One time, you would have to fold it. Now if you fold it — see it there,” said Bookie, a bus conductor, while demonstrating to the Business Observer how difficult it was to do.

“Now when you collect on the bus, you go suh,” he said while attempting to fold the notes and pointing out that it reopens quickly and easily.

“You have to definitely put it between a whole heap of old money so it can hold the fold, or have an elastic, or dog nyam your supper,” he added. “If you’re on the [bus] steps, and if you make a mistake, everything blows away,” he continued. He said he now keeps the notes in his pocket for safekeeping rather than between his fingers.

Another bus conductor shared that while he feels he has no choice but to accept the notes, he has no idea how to determine their authenticity.

“I don’t know if this is real. From I get it, I don’t know what to look for. They didn’t teach us what to look for,” said Dwaine. He held the note up to the light and continued, “Nobody nuh say yow, you ago look for a star. You will look for a point or for ink or a dot.”

While Dwaine held a new $1,000 polymer note up to the light, explaining that he has no clue what to look for, a gush of wind took it out of his hands sending his colleagues in a frantic chase to recover it.

“See how it blow away a while ago. I have to run it down a hundred times,” he concluded.

His comment suggests that some people are still unaware of how to detect the safety features, despite the television advertisements leading up to the circulation. On the BOJ’s website, it highlight five common features across all the notes, under feel, look and check. These are: the feel of the raised dots to the top right hand corner, which is for the visually impaired, a clear window is seen at the front and back of the notes, and the letters BOJ appear in an area of coloured print and using an ultraviolet (UV) light, some areas of the notes glow in two colours and the denomination appears. But the responses suggest that more education is needed to help the population to be able to feel a sense of safety and assurance with the notes.

Beginning in 2011, the Bank of Canada introduced a new series of polymer banknotes, the Bank of England released its new polymer notes in 2016 and they all cited a longer circulation lifetime and more durability as one of the many reasons for the switch.

“We nuh fi a pick up foreign style. We a nuh foreigner, we a Jamaican,” said a frustrated Danny when told the reason for the change.

“I have foreign money and I don’t reach foreign yet,” said Georgia Henry — a citizen in Half-Way-Tree — enthusiastically. She says the new money makes her feel new and she’s loving them.