Beverly Crandon, seamstress – ‘To me it would be good and bad. I would say it is good in a sense that it allows everyone to carry around less money in their pocket without someone knowing and would allow persons to feel safer when they are doing a big transaction. But then on the other hand it shows that the Guyanese currency no longer has much value and when this note becomes legal all the other notes will be devalued. And with the value decreasing, persons would find it hard to provide a daily bread and even have to work harder and jobs are not easy to find now. But what will we do if the government introduces it? We would have to use it because we would have no objection to that.’
Carol Caesar, evangelist – ‘In one way it has its advantages and disadvantages. It allows persons to walk around with less money but then on the other hand if a person passes a counterfeit on a business transaction that person would lose a whole five thousand dollars. I think that they should not pay much attention to the thousand dollar bill but rather the coins. They should replace it back with the notes like long ago.’
Verna West, self-employed – ‘I think it would be too heavy for daily use but for business purposes, it would be useful. You would not have to carry around a lot of money. Really and truly other than helping to reduce the amount of notes persons walk around with I see it as a terrible thing. Because the value of all the other notes would be less and eventually they would not have its maximum value.’
Mr Shake, vendor – ‘Well a thousand dollar bill in the market is very big especially when it comes to changing to give the customers much less five thousand dollars. If you have to change a five thousand dollar for a customer who buys a five hundred dollar goods you would have to find four thousand five hundred dollar change and you do not sell that much some days. They should not bring that note it would be very hard for the working people. They should however replace the coins because persons do not want to accept it and it is all over the place.’
Ryan Persaud, self-employed – ‘I would say it is something good because you would have less notes and more value. It would help the people in the business sector greatly because they would not have to go around with a whole lot of notes and it would save them from getting robbed. But then when you have to change it to pay for a service you would not have the change especially the hire car drivers and vendors, they would find it hard because they might not have all the change the customer has to get.’
Sean Jetoo, cambio dealer – ‘It is good yes because you would be able to walk with fewer notes with more value. It would be safer too for us we would stand a better chance of not being robbed and also when we have to change money we would just have to give fewer notes to the customer and that would be better for them too. They would be able to have a safer transaction. With this bill people would be able to hide their money easily and also save.’
Mr Gopaul, self-employed – ‘I think the five thousand bill would help to do business easier and safer. I see it as a great idea. It would also allow persons to save a lot because when they have a high note like this and it is in one they would not want to use it so they would be able save and that will be good. I see it as a benefit to business persons because they would be able to carry out business in a comfortable atmosphere since they would have less notes to go around with.’
Seeram Narine, pandit – ‘Bringing a five thousand dollar note would be very good, because it would be convenient for persons who normally go about with a lot of cash. I see it as a safer way to do business and bank transactions because it would be less time consuming and persons would not have to wait long in banks to carry out a transaction. I also think this would be a plus for the country because it would help persons from being robbed by having less notes to carry around and their pockets would look less bulky.’
Keon Earle, barber – ‘I do not see this as a good idea because when a person goes into a shop, the shop might not have enough change for the customer. It means the business entities would have to get more change than they normally have. I think people would get robbed more easily because when they would have a five thousand dollar note in their pocket and a person picks their pocket it’s a whole five thousand dollar they would lose. Plus, the other notes would lose their value, which would not be good because of the high cost of living.’
