Canadians have been raising a stink with the Bank of Canada about the new plastic bank notes.

Emails to bank officials from the public in the months after the polymer bills were introduced repeatedly ask whether a scent of maple syrup has been added to the notes.

The correspondence, obtained under the Access to Information Act, asks the bank to confirm whether a scratch-and-sniff feature has been quietly added.

Rumours of the maple-syrup scent got started on the internet soon after the first bank notes were introduced in 2011, and have persisted in YouTube videos, blogs and Tweets.

The bank insists it has not added a scent, maple or otherwise, to any of the new plastic bills.

But the maple myth is likely to persist, with some Canadians claiming the odour might be an unexpected byproduct of the manufacturing process.