To a lot of people’s surprise Canadian Mark Carney has been named as the new governor of the Bank of England. He is currently the governor of the Bank of Canada and will be the first non-Brit to hold the position in England.
Update: A thoughtful remark by Banknotenews on the same subject: "The move will likely mean new signature varieties for Canada's banknotes, but not for those in Great Britain, where the notes are signed by the chief cashier."
Some months ago there were questions being asked where Syria gets its new banknotes from. The 2009 issues (P112-P114) were printed by Oesterreichische Banknoten- und Sicherheitsdruck in Austria but due to sanctions by the EU against the Syrian regime, that printer was no longer available. Most people believed that the new printer would be Goznak, Russia’s biggest security printer. A fact flatly denied by the governor of the Syrian Central Bank (update: ...but which in the mean time has been confirmed by Goznak themselves).
But now new evidence has surfaced. Flight records show that massive amounts of cash have been flown from Russia to Syria. About 240 tons of banknotes to be precise! These are needed by the Syrian regime to cope with the international sanctions and to pay the war effort.
And then the banknote that will not be issued: the 3000 Rubel from Russia. Officials dismissed the rumors which had started on a website of a local politician. The idea was that this banknote would fill the gap between the 1000 and 5000 Rubel banknote. The 5000 Rubel being the last new banknote to be issued in Russia. But this banknote is virtually useless in daily payments due to lack of change in shops. The 3000 Rubel banknote might be a solution but not in the near future. A professor in graphic design made a design of the proposed banknote with scenes of Yekaterinburg on it. Quite a good looking note to be honest.
The Bank of Zambia has announced that the kwacha will be rebased by dividing it by 1,000, dropping three zeros off the currency, on January 1. Now Zambia has a K50,000 note, but this is worth less than $10. The Bank of Zambia said this resulted in inconvenience and risks in carrying large sums of money for transactions. It has also led to increasing difficulties in maintaining bookkeeping and statistical records, ensuring compatibility with data-processing software and higher costs in the payment system.
Zambia currently has banknotes for K20, K50, K100, K500, K1,000, K5,000, K10,000, K20,000 and K50,000. It has coins for K10, K5, K1, 50 ngwee and 25 ngwee. After January 1 there will be a new note series for K100, K50, K20, K10, K5 and K2 and coins for K1, 50 ngwee, 10 ngwee and five ngwee.
From July 1 next year, the old currency will not be accepted, but it will be exchangeable for a year thereafter for the new currency at the Bank of Zambia, commercial banks and designated agents. The new currency will get the symbol K. From July 1 2014 to December 31 2015, exchanges will be at the Bank of Zambia only and thereafter old currency will have no value. Click the popup to see the new banknotes:
First is the ten Rupees banknote from India. The Reserve Bank of India has announced that these will be gradually replaced by coins. The average life span of the 10 Rupees banknotes is 9-10 months. To have banknotes with such a short life span is not cost effective. At the same time they will begin to experiment with polymer banknotes to prolong the life of especially the lower denominations. Source
Short news from India:
The Reserve Bank of India will shortly issue `10 denomination Banknotes with Rupee Symbol (`) on the obverse and the reverse, inset letter ‘A’ in both the numbering panels, in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005 bearing the signature of Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor , Reserve Bank of India, and the year of printing ‘2012’ printed on the reverse of the Banknote. The design of these notes to be issued now is similar in all respects to the `10 Banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi Series- 2005, issued earlier. All the Banknotes in the denomination of `10 issued by the Bank in the past will continue to be legal tender.
Owen Linzmayer of Banknotenews.com (every collector should have this site in his bookmarks) has designed a few calendars with the most beautiful banknotes depicting aircraft, beasts, beauties, birds, boats, bridges, and fish.
You can order them here for $24,99 but if you use the code DELIRITAS you get a 51% discount. This code expires 27 November so get them while you can! I just ordered a calendar with the beasts theme.
Two new notes arrived yesterday which I won on eBay. The first one is an ECU-testnote which I remembered from 20 years ago and which sparked my interest in banknotes. A year later I started collecting. The second note came as a gift with the first one and is from Burundi. Such a nice gesture!
As you might have noticed I love to collect banknotes. Some people however have thought of different uses for the notes in their pocket. Like this 'sugar daddy' in China who came up with the idea of dressing his girl up in a dress made of real banknotes. The girl claims they're the equivalent of 200.000 Yuan, or 32.000 Dollar. But as one commenter on a Chinese website pointed out, the dress is made of Ukrainian banknotes. All together he estimates they're worth about 200 Dollar which seems like a reasonable guess to me. Take a look:
Tuesday I wrote about the 50 and 1000 Krona from Sweden which will become invalid after 31 December 2013. More news is available now from the website of the Swedish Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank. This is part of the preparations for the replacement of the current banknote series which will begin in 2015. From the website:
Schedule for the introduction of Sweden’s new banknotes and coins
For a collector of world banknotes like me it's always nice to know how many countries are represented in your collection. At the moment I have 157 countries for instance. But it's much nicer to see this in a list which could also be easy to manage.
Well I did just that. There are numerous lists of banknote issuing countries but I've tried to combine them in one list which I hope is somewhat complete. Of course there is still room for debate: should you add every German state as a separate entity or is 'German states' sufficient? But as a first attempt this works for me.
You can choose 'countries' in the menu on the right or click here.
Sweden: 50-krona and 1,000-krona banknotes without foil strips will become invalid after 31 December 2013. Source: Sveriges Riksbank.
United Arab Emirates: the new 50 Dirhams note which was announced on 23 July 2012 has been issued dated 2011. It has a new 3-mm wide color-shifting security thread and it bears the new coat of arms which was adopted on 22 March 2008. Source: MRI Bankers' Guide.
On December 13 Spink and Son will hold a new auction of world banknotes. A total of 741 lots with banknotes from all over the world is available to bid on. To be honest: the prices are a 'little' bit higher than on eBay. But the notes at Spink are indeed very rare and beautiful.
To me it's already a pleasure to flip through the catalogue which you can download here (pdf).
According to a recent study from forexcurrency.us 35% of all Britons believe you can't use Scottish banknotes in England. This is however not the case: in everyday transactions the notes can be used and will be accepted by retailers. The confusion probably comes from the use of the term "legal tender" as is being explained by The Telegraph:
As the Bank of England website clarifies, Scottish bank notes are technically not 'legal tender' in England, just as Bank of England notes are not in Scotland. However, the term 'legal tender' holds a very narrow, technical meaning in regards to debt settlement.
So when you do want to spend Scottish pounds in England, you are free to do so. Or collect them of course, as I did back in 1993 when I started my collection with a Scottish pound.
On the 14th of November I celebrated my 35th birthday. Yes, thank you very much. From my mother I got a whole bunch of new banknotes as a gift. Some were new, some were better versions than I already had and some were issues with lower serial numbers.
The new banknotes are:
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