OUT WITH THE OLD

With nearly a month left before Jamaica’s old cotton banknotes officially lose their legal tender status, many businesses and consumers have already moved on – leaving the outdated currency behind in drawers, cash registers, and memories.

Across Kingston and St Andrew, signs taped to cashier stations make it clear: “No old notes accepted.” And according to cashiers, the transition is not only well under way – it is practically over.

“Wi haffi stop tek dem from now because wi nuh wah dem pile up pon wi and wi cya get rid of them,” Brittany Grace, a cashier at Good As New furniture store in downtown Kingston told The Gleaner yesterday.

She said that although her store stopped accepting the old $5,000, $1,000, $500, $100, and $50 bills for goods and services in May, business hasn’t missed a beat as very few clients have been using them for transactions.

Although the Bank of Jamaica has set July 1, 2025, as the deadline for the demonetisation of the cotton banknotes, many consumers stopped using them months ago. The new poly-mer notes – more durable and secure – have steadily replaced their predecessors since June 2023. The existing coin denominations of $20, $10, $5, and $1 remain unaffected.

The BOJ indicated that it would continue to redeem the old cotton banknotes for face value indefinitely.

Despite this assurance, consumers and businesses alike have rejected the old notes.

“In my experience, when I take them, the customers don’t want them as change anymore, so I can’t give them out. Dem seh dem money deh stop mek,” said a cashier at a food establishment in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew.

She told The Gleaner that the business stopped taking the old notes for about a month now and noticed that their circulation had dwindled.

Polymer banknotes accounted for 92.9 per cent – or $259.2 billion – of the value of all banknotes in circulation at the end of last year compared to 78.9 per cent – or $213.3 billion – at the end of 2023, the BOJ stated in its 2024 annual report. In terms of volume, these notes accounted for 71.9 per cent of all banknotes in circulation at the end of last year compared to 57.8 per cent at the end of 2023.

“I haven’t seen the old money in a while now,” Winston Black, a customer in one food establishment, told The Gleaner. “‘Bout four months now, I haven’t seen the old money.”

However, he is concerned that some people will be caught off guard by the deadline.

“You have people weh save money in dem house, and stuff like dat, and people are not as informed like we are. They need to send out the news a little more,” the plumber from St Catherine stated.

But Felisha Bolton, a produce vendor in Half-Way Tree, believes that people are just being proactive by rejecting the notes.

“Once yuh put something out inna Jamaica public, yuh know seh dem extra, so if a even July a di deadline, dem stop tek it from March. Once yuh tell dem a ting, a suh it a guh go,” she told The Gleaner.

She, too, has stopped accepting the cotton notes from customers.

“I don’t take it because they (customers) are not taking it back from me … . The machine is not taking it, and mi nuh have the time to go join the line,” she said.

Despite the widespread shift, a few businesses are still welcoming the old notes.

Hitesh Bhaqchanbanie, manager of MD Appliance Store in Cross Roads, St Andrew, said that although the old banknotes have reduced in circulation, he has no issues with his customers using them to conduct business.

“I don’t get any problem with the old money. I collect it and use it to pay my suppliers. If any customers come right now with the money and they buy something, I’ll collect it,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com