The new $100 polymer bills released this month are purported to be more durable and secure, but the plastic currency is already garnering criticism just weeks before circulation due to the cost they may cause small businesses.

The Bank of Canada announced new polymer bank notes in June 2011. The first bill, the $100 note, will be released Nov. 14.

In March, the $50 bills will be circulated, followed by the rest of the plastic money by the end of 2013.

The bills are being touted as a more convenient currency because the added security features makes it much more difficult to counterfeit.

However, Ted Brosnan, president of John Poulet Cheque Writer Service, said that the new bills will not initially make life any easier, especially for small businesses.

"It's because of the design of the bills," Brosnan, whose company sells currency counters, told CTV Toronto.

The new bills have a large transparent window that makes the currency undetectable in counters and even some ATMs, he said.

"Probably 99 per cent of the market uses money counters with optics," Brosnan explained, adding that the machines won't register a bill in the counter if the sensor doesn't pick it up.

"Because the one side is clear, the machine doesn't see anything and registers an error."

He said that this means almost every bill counter used by bank tellers and many businesses will need to be replaced.

"Some smaller financial institutions are in the position where they have to replace their ATMs as well as their money counting machines, in that case it can be a large expense that they haven't counted on," he said.

But Bank of Canada spokesperson Julie Girard said that the bank has been aware that there would be a transition period with the new notes.

"When we change from series to series, whether it's from paper to paper, or paper to polymer, there's always going to be a transition," she said.

Girard said that the bank has been working with banknote equipment manufacturers for more than two years to address any problems that may arise with the new currency.

"We knew the transition was going to be a little more involved with polymer but the security and all the benefits were really important," she said. "Polymer is what makes those benefits possible."

The bills, which the Bank of Canada says is 2.5 times more durable than paper bills, were created to combat bogus bill production, though the practice has been declining in Canada since 2004.

Girard said that the likelihood of getting a counterfeit bill is a low 35 parts per million – meaning that for every million genuine notes, there are 35 fakes.

In 2004, that number was 470 parts per million.

Girard credits a security upgrade in the mid-2000s and increased education on spotting counterfeit money.

"When we put out a bank note the first thing that we think about is security because we want to be sure that Canadians can use their money with confidence," she said.

The $100 bill features two portraits of prime minister Robert Borden and the image of a researchers at a microscope. A depiction of the double-helix structure of DNA is also on the bill.

Girard said that one of the reasons the bank chose to start with $100 bills was because it's a low volume note.

"By the time the $20 comes out we will have been working with these banknote equipment manufacturers for years," she said. "The $100 is not in ATMs and we wanted to make sure to give the industry the time for a smooth transition."

Brosnan said that the while he agrees that the issue isn't too critical at the moment, the new bills do poise financial issues for some.

"I think there's an adequate amount of time for people to prepare themselves for it, but it's still not a good scenario for the expense it's going to cost Canadian businesses and financial institutions."