Paying with plastic now has a double meaning in Canada. The central bank has introduced a polymer-based $100 bill as our northern neighbor moves away from paper currency.

The thin, shiny, high-tech, recyclable bill, released Monday by the Bank of Canada, is reportedly almost impossible to rip and thought to be nearly counterfeit-proof, according to the bank and news reports. Security features include holographic elements and a metallic strip running through a transparent window.

Here it is on YouTube.

The new polymer $50 bill goes into circulation in March, with the $20, $10 and $5 bills coming in 2013.

"We've been working with the market for over two years to make sure that ATMs and all banknote-processing equipment are ready for these polymer notes," the bank's scientific adviser, Martine Warren, told The Globe and Mail. "We distributed test notes and advance designs of the genuine notes to machine manufacturers far earlier than we have in the past to make sure that the circulation system is ready for these polymer notes."

On the front of the $100 is a portrait of former prime minister Sir Robert Borden (1911-1920). The back "celebrates Canada's contributions to innovation in the field of medicine," the central bank says in its news release.

Here's an infographic of the printing process, and read remarks by the head of the bank about the release.

Canada joins about 30 other countries that have exchanged paper for plastic. Australia was first, in the 1980s.

Demonstrating the powerful connection between money and sex, the Canadian Press wrote last month that "a focus group mistook the depiction of a strand of DNA on the $100 bill for a sex toy, and most people thought the see-through window on the polymer notes was shaped like the contours of a woman's body."

The peek-a-boo design was tweaked before the bill was released into the not-always-see-through financial wilds.