HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wish everybody a happy 2014 and if you're a fellow banknote collector I hope you'll find that one note you've been searching for this year!

Tunisia to issue new 5 dinar in 1st quarter of 2014?

After the recent introduction of the new 10 dinar note Tunisia will issue a new banknote in the first quarter of 2014. This time the note will have a denomination of 5 dinar.

Not much more is known at this moment since the only source for this news are the remarks made by the vice-gouverneur of the Central Bank of Tunisia, mr. Mohamed Rekik. 

Via

Bhutan switches to hybrid notes

Interesting news from the small kingdom Bhutan: the low denominations of 1 and 10 ngultrum will no longer be printed by De la Rue on paper but by printer Giesecke and Devrient on a paper/polymer substrate made by Louisenthal. Hybrid banknotes have a cotton core that gives the substrate the security benefits of traditional banknotes. This is surrounded by a polyester laminate that increases the durability of the banknote even under extreme climatic conditions. Bhutan's 1 and 10 ngultrum banknotes in particular are subjected to high levels of wear and, up to now, had to be regularly replaced. 

Statistically, Bhutan is one of the poorest nations on Earth, although its average income per capita is higher than in neighboring India. Jigme Singye Wangchuk, King of Bhutan since 2006 and pictured on the front of the 10 ngultrum banknote, has coined the term "gross national happiness" to describe the cultural objective and he formulated this as an important objective of Bhutan's economic policy. In line with this, Buddhist symbols of happiness also adorn the new banknotes. Alongside Ecuador, Bhutan is one of the few countries that has not set out a growth-oriented economic model in its constitution.

New additions week 52 - 2013

Just before the end of the year I received a new addition to my collection: a 1 dollar Silver Certificate from the United States (series 1935-E, P416D2e). 

Silver Certificates are a type of representative money printed from 1878 to 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard. The certificates were initially redeemable in the same face value of silver dollar coins, and later in raw silver bullion. Since 1968 they have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but are still valid legal tender.

Normally I'm not much of a collector of US notes. Mainly because I think they have boring designs and also because a lot of the collectors of US notes I know are obsessed with special serial numbers. For me that's not the collecting of banknotes but of numbers on an arbitrary item. This Silver Certificate however has an interesting numismatic story so I welcome it in my collection. 

England revises selection of characters on banknotes

From the website of the Bank of England regarding the future choice of characters on new banknotes:

On 24 July 2013, the Bank of England announced that it would review the process and criteria for selecting characters to appear on its banknotes.  The aim was to establish a set of principles to guide the choice of historical characters that would ensure the Bank’s choices commanded broad respect and legitimacy and to establish a process for choosing historical characters that would, and would be seen to, ensure the delivery of those principles.

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Belarus waits with redenomination and new banknotes

An article on Chapter97.org, which links to an interview with chief of the Belarusian National Bank Nadzezhda Yermakova on Zviazda.by, mentions that Belarus won't see a redenomination next year. 

"We plan a redenomination, but it's too early to speak about the date,” Nadzezhda Yermakova noted. The National Bank chief said the inflation rate of under 10% was needed to carry out redenomination, otherwise large denomination banknotes would appear again due to the price growth.

As the inflation rate is expected to be 11% the next year, it's too early to discuss the redenomination in 2014, Nadzezhda Yermakova says. “We have new banknotes, we already printed them. But it's too early to issue them,” the National Bank chief noted.

Lukashenka also said earlier that banknotes for the redenomination had been printed.

“Redenomination is not a problem. It's a technical issue. We have printed banknotes. They have been in warehouses for some years, but it is more important for us to have stability on the currency market,” he said at a press conference for Russian media in Minsk. “It's better to carry it [redenomination] out when the situation on the currency market becomes more stable."

So perhaps we will see new Belarusian banknotes in 2015?

Peru issues revised 100 nuevo sole note

The Central Bank of Peru (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú) has issued a press release on the introduction of a revised 100 nuevo sole note.

The note has been issued on 18 December 2013 and has the same design as the previous issue but with the addition of a vertical number 100 in SPARK ink (developed by the company SICPA). 

Kazakhstan postpones 20,000 tenge note

An article on Tengrinews.kz mentions that the introduction of the already printed new 20,000 tenge note has been postponed by the National Bank of Kazakhstan. The reason for this decision is the fear for high inflation. At this moment the 10,000 tenge is the highest denomination in the country (this note was Banknote of the Year 2011 by the way). 

The National Bank has stated that they don't rule out the introduction of the 20,000 tenge note in the future but they don't expect it to be issued very soon. 

Update 21 November 2015: there is a new discussion about introducing this note after all.

Morocco issues new 20 and 50 dirham notes

Several reports mention that the central bank of Morocco, Bank Al-Maghrib, has issued the new 20 and 50 dirham notes on 19 December 2013 as part of the new series of banknotes which was introduced earlier this year. Originally the notes were supposed to be issued during national festivitites. The 50 dirham at the anniversary of the Green March on 6 November and the 20 dirham on 11 January, Morocco's independance day. What has caused the delay is unknown. 

The 20 dirham note shows the cities of Casablanca and Rabat on the back. The 50 dirham note a tree and Ouzoud Falls. 

ECB launches game to introduce the new 10 euro note

The new €10 banknote will be unveiled on 13 January 2014 and start circulating later in the year. To draw attention to its security features, the European Central Bank has launched an online competition for European Union residents over 18 years old. Players have to uncover four of these security features and also guess the number of euro banknotes in circulation in the euro area on 31 December 2013. The competition closes at 11.59 p.m. CET on 12 January 2014.

The interesting thing are the awards:

• 20 high-scoring players will win €5 VIP banknotes from the Europa series personally signed by the President of the European Central Bank.
• 80 runners-up will receive a commemorative €10 banknote from the first series.

A commemorative €10 banknote? I guess the presentation of the note in a frame or a folder will be the commemorative element because I doubt they will actually print a commemorative note.

Anyway, time to start playing!

Bank of England will change to polymer banknotes

Not really a surprise but the Bank of England (BoE) has decided that the new £5 and £10 will be printed on polymer. About three months ago, the BoE has taken sample £5 and £10 notes to shopping centres, showing the public that they are secure, cheaper and greener than paper-based money. And the public loved the new notes: 87% favoured the new notes over the old material. 

The Bank said it expected to commission polymer producer Innovia to produce the sheets of plastic. This will be quite a blow to De La Rue, the supplier of banknotes to the BoE for a decade. De La Rue is likely to retain the contract to design and print the notes at the BoE-owned plant it operates in Debden. 

The new notes will be smaller (by around 15%). The first polymer note to be printed and issued will be the £5 note with the image of Sir Winston Churchill. This note will enter circulation in 2016, shortly followed by the £10 note with the image of Jane Austen. The BoE has indicated that a decision would be made "in due course" on whether to make the most common note, the £20, also from polymer. But I would be surprised if it would be anything else than polymer. 

Kazakhstan issues new commemorative note

The National Bank of Kazakhstan has issued a new commemorative note of 1000 tenge on 12 December 2013. The note meassures 134 x 70 mm. From the press release:

"Dedicated to Kultegin – the Monument of Turkic Runic Writing – signed by Kelimbetov K.N., the Chairman of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The obverse side of the banknote is a follows: the prevailing images are vertical. The key images are: the monument (Kazak Eli) on the right side of the banknote and images of the flying doves in the bottom right. In the middle of the left part there is a fragment of Kultegin sculpture. In the upper part there are the images of the symbols of state of the Republic of Kazakhstan: the National Emblem and State Flag.

The reverse side is as follows: the prevailing images are horizontal. The key images are: petroglyphic drawings of Turkic warriors and the monument of Turkic writing in the background. Lower left and right top there is a digital notation of the banknote nominal value and in the bottom center there is a literal notation of the nominal value in the Russian language. On the left side there is a holographic band of 12 mm wide with the image of a fragment of the State Flag, the National Bank’s logo and a legend ('Eskertkish tenge').

The circulation of the commemorative banknote of 1,000 tenge is 10,000,000."

Russian ruble gets its own symbol

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has announced that a symbol for its ruble has been chosen. Over the last month more than 280,000 people took part in a vote to choose the new symbol. The chosen graphic uses  the Cyrillic letter “P” which has its lower part crossed by a  horizontal strip, Elvira Nabyullina, CBR chairman said. This version of the ruble symbol got more than 61% of  the votes, with the second most popular receiving about 19% of votes.

Russia hopes that the new symbol will get the same recognizability and standing as the $, € or the £. The symbol will appear on future coins and banknotes.

Below are, along with the winner, the other proposed symbols who didn't make it:

Nice wedding gift

It is tradition in China to send gifts to fiancees. A 'tuhao' (a new word meaning 'rich people') in North China's Tianjin gave a large fortune to his daughter, including several properties and a one-million-yuan car. But the 99 sheets of uncut banknotes, which include some foreign currencies, are the most eye-catching.

Spacenotes - update

One week after its inception my space and astronomy themed blog has 26 banknotes from 17 countries covering subjects from astronauts to planets to telescopes. And of course as always: there is much more to come!

Be sure to have a look or just click the astronaut image on the right.