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“Don’t tell me it’s London calling,” Flaherty joked.

A bobbing Hadfield then chatted with Flaherty and Carney as a $5 note spun around in front of him like the hands on a clock in the absence of gravity.

The note features images of the Canadarm, a generic astronaut and Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency’s robotic handyman, while the $10 — also revealed Tuesday — has a picture on it of a train running through the Rockies.

“From orbit, it’s really clear that Canada’s internal accomplishments have reached well beyond our extensive frontiers,” Hadfield said.

“These new polymer notes show us the type of thing that we can accomplish when we really put our minds to it.”

The new notes will go into circulation in November, joining the other polymer bills that were previously introduced.

Documents released earlier this week show some people found the new $5 bill too “cartoonish” and the $10 too old-fashioned.

The bank says the polymer notes last two-and-a-half times longer than the old, cotton-paper bills.

Some Canadians are less than thrilled with the country’s new line of plastic bills. Vending machine owners complained last fall after the release of the new $20 that their machines would not accept the new currency. As many as half a million machines that scan bank notes needed reprogramming to accept the radically redesigned bills, according to a Canadian Press report at the time.

In addition, unconfirmed reports of melting bills emerged last July when a Kelowna, B.C., bank teller said she had heard of cases in which several bills had melted together inside a car. Canada’s central bank said it could not disclose details of behind-the-scenes discussions about tales of melting banknotes as they could endanger national security or international relations.

Some people took to Twitter to lament the move from paper to plastic, while others voiced annoyance over the change in imagery on the bills:

Noooooo. Now all our bills are that lame plastic..there is something visceral & cool about the feel of paper bills. cbc.ca/news/canada/st… — Andrew King (@twitandrewking) April 30, 2013

The young hockey players are gone from the new $5? Replaced by a robot?? #StompinTomOnThe5!! cbc.ca/news/canada/st… — Andrew Rodger (@StompinTomOn5) April 30, 2013

Others responded more positively to the new bills:

The new $5 and $10 bills look very sleekbit.ly/Zy3cnw — John C (@7John_7) April 30, 2013

Take that, world! Our new currency will have SPACE ROBOTS on it! engadget.com/2013/04/30/can… — Screenhog (@_screenhog) April 30, 2013