The site Belarusian News mentions that the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus is considering issuing a new 500,000 ruble banknote. "We consider issuing a new banknote valued at Br500,000. The final decision will be made taking into account the current economic situation and will be announced by the National Bank in advance," the bank said.
This is however not the first rumour from Belarus (see here and here) so we'll just have to wait and see if there's any real value to this story.
Bangladesh will keep its 1 and 2 taka notes despite reports stating otherwise from earlier this week. This was announced by Finance Minister AMA Muhith. On monday he reported that the 1 and 2 taka notes (which are issued by the Ministry of Finance in contrast to the other banknotes which are issued by the Central Bank) would be gradually withdrawn from the market.
Now he has stated however that "they will cease to exist if people stop using them". There are also coins available with a denomination of 1 and 2 taka but as it seems these two notes aren't going anywhere soon.
According to the Khmer Times the National Bank of Cambodia has issued two new banknotes of 100 and 500 riels:
"The 100 riels note depicts the King Father as a young monk on the front, the Silver Palace on the back and a Khmer statue as the watermark. The new 500 riel note will feature King Sihamoni on the front, the Kizuna bridge on the back and the Nak Loeung Bridge as the watermark. Both bridges are Japan-financed and their depiction on the banknote remarks on the good ties between Cambodia and Japan."
Update 19-01-2015: And of course there is some controversy because people feel offended...
Just one new note added this week which I picked from the 'trash tray' at the local coin shop. It's a 100 Kronen note from Austria (P77).
In 2013 the Central Bank of Cuba announced it would abolish the two-currency system. Since 1994 Cuba has had two currencies, one pegged to the US dollar and the other worth only a fraction of that. The more valuable convertible peso (CUC) was reserved for use in the tourism sector and foreign trade.
In October 2014 I wrote about the need for higher denominations to go ahead with this plan. It has now been announced what this means. Right now the highest denomination is 100 pesos which is only about 4 US dollars. From 1 February 2015 notes of 200, 500 and 1,000 pesos will start to circulate.
After the first three new banknotes of 200, 1,000 and 2,000 escudos were issued in December 2014, the second batch of new notes have been issued on 2 January 2015. These are the 500 and 5,000 escudos notes.
The new 500 escudo note honours Jorge Barbosa (1902-1971), writer and a founder of the "Claridade" literary movement as well as his home island, Santiago.
The 5,000 escudo note depicts the first president of Cabo Verde Aristides Maria Pereira (president from 1975 to 1991), who died on 22 September 2011, and his native island, Boa Vista.
Sadly I have no pictures yet. Seriously: if you put out new banknotes, wouldn't you want to show them proudly on the website of your national bank??
The Maldives Monetary Authority has, according to HaveeruOnline, announced that 28 designers have been selected to submit their proposals for a new commemorative banknote due to be issued in 2015 to commemorate Maldives’ 50th year of Independence.
"The central bank said on Friday that with the 28 proposals, it will begin its evaluation.
According to the MMA, the best proposals will be shortlisted and the Authority will contact the shortlisted artists by the 11th of January. The artists will be asked to produce a 15-minute presentation and will go through an interview on the 15th. The top three artists will be chosen to design the bank notes by the 19th.
The artists will have to present a final design by the 17th of February. MMA said that all dates – other than the deadline – is subject to change but that the artists will be given due notification of said changes."
An exact date of issue is not mentioned but the Maldives gained independence on 26 July 1965 so we can expect the new note around July I think.
With the coming of the new year it's also time to reflect on the past year and that means: time to send in your nomination for Banknote of the Year! This annual award is organised by the IBNS and has been won for the past three years by Kazachstan (1, 2, 3).
Of course it would be easy to nominate their new banknote for this award and have a very good chance of nominating the winning banknote. But I decided to nominate a bit of an outsider this year: the 5,000 francs note from the French Pacific Territories which was issued on 20 January 2014.
My reasons:
- I think it's a bold move to completely depart from the old design which was loved and admired for decades by users and collectors worldwide.
- The look and color of this particular 5,000 francs note is beautiful and really gives the series its 'tropical' feel.
If you disagree please feel free to nominate your own favorite banknote issued in 2014. All the information and other nominees can be found here.
The National Bank of Ukraine has announced (Google translate) a new 100 hryvnia banknote to be issued on 9 March 2015. The redesigned note will have added security features like a windowed security thread and a SPARK patch. The front of the note shows the image of poet and artist Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861).
Images of the new note and the presentation:
As mentioned in a post on 1 January 2014 the Philippines have started the demonetization process of its old banknote series. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP: the Central Bank of the Philippines) has announced this step in this press release.
"The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announces today the start of the demonetization process on 1 January 2015 for the old banknotes (New Design Series, NDS) as part of its objective to preserve the integrity of Philippine currency."
The NDS banknotes can be used until the end of 2015.
The Government of India has announced that for the first time in 20 years the 1 rupee note will be printed again. The note was discontinued in 1994 because of high costs.
As before, the new one rupee note will have the signature of the Finance Secretary. Apart from the one rupee note, all other paper currency (2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 rupees) have the signature of the RBI Governor, as these are issued by the Reserve Bank of India , whereas the 1 rupee note is issued by the Government of India.
I'm not sure you will be able to buy a lot with the new note though, since 1 rupee equals 0.013 euro and 0.015 US dollar. No word on the design of the new note yet, but this was the design of the notes printed in 1994:
On 1 January 2015 the new year began and this marked the end of the litas as a currency. Lithuania is the 19th member of the eurozone and has adopted the euro as its currency. The litas was already pegged to the euro since 2 february 2002. The litas has been replaced at a rate of EUR 1.00 = LTL 3.45280.
The new eurozone looks like this (dark blue area):
I wish you all a happy 2015 and hope that your wishes may come true this year! Happy collecting!
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