Canada's new $100 bill has started a fresh controversy, with dozens of residents contacting the Bank of Canada to ask why the bill smells like maple syrup.
Toronto-based news agency The Canadian Press obtained a year's worth of rather hilarious emails sent to the country's central bank from concerned Canadians inquiring about the sweet smell in the bills that were introduced in 2011.
However, the Bank of Canada didn't have the answer some may have wanted: No syrup smell has been added to the new bills, the outlet reported Sunday.
Still, many Canadians, like Vancouver-based perfume manufacturer Monique Sherrett, are convinced there's a maple odor in the currency.
Sherrett told The Press she smelled maple syrup on a $100 bill after it was taken out of a friend's back pocket.
"I do think heat has something to do with activating the smell," Sherrett said. "My friend’s warm butt is likely the activator.”
Some Canadians have complained that heat also makes the country's new polymer bills shrivel and melt, according to The Wall Street Journal. Others have reported the bills are difficult to fold and don't work in vending machines, the Journal notes.
Last August, controversy erupted over the new $100 bills when it was revealed that the Bank of Canada had replaced an image of an Asian-looking woman with a whiter-looking woman. The bank later issued a rare apology after many called the decision racist.
Controversy also followed the redesign of Canada's new $20 bill after focus groups said it had an image of what looked like the twin towers and a picture of a DNA strand that some thought looked like a sex toy.
Compared to that, we'd say the maple syrup debacle is a step in the right direction.
(h/t Daily Mail)
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