Lesotho, the enclaved country which is completely surrounded bij South Africa, is planning on introducing a new 200-loti banknote in the near future. The new note will be issued "as soon as all the necessary formalities are completed".
The Central Bank of Nepal (Nepal Rastra Bank) has decided that from next year the information on the birthplace of Buddha (claimed by Nepal to be the town of Lumbini) will be put on all future banknotes. The move to include the name of the birthplace on the new 100-rupees notes sparked a bit of controversy in 2013 because India also claims to have the birthplace of Buddha in its borders.
From now on the national currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the tenge) will not contain the signature of the Chairman of the National Bank. Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the corresponding decree on 4 February 2016.
Recently I wrote about the Royal Bank of Scotland who had to chose a new face to put on its new polymer 10-pound note. The RBS had narrowed it down to three scientists. My prediction which scientist would be the winner was accurate it seems. The Royal Bank of Scotland reports that Mary Somerville has been chosen as the new face on the 10-pound note.
With that decision Mary Somerville will be the first woman on a banknote from the Royal Bank of Scotland besides the Queen. The RBS used its Facebook page to choose a winner by letting other users liking the photo of one of the three scientists. Mary Somerville seemed to be the clear winner but suddenly there was a last minute surge in votes for Thomas Telford. Facebook users immediately sounded the alarm and the voting was halted by the RBS pending further investigation. It was soon clear that a vast majority of votes for Thomas Telford were the result of so-called likebots.
From the Independent: "Dr Alice Prochaska, the principal of the University of Oxford’s Somerville College which was named after the female scientist, previously said she deserved to win. Describing her as "one of the greatest science writers of the 19th century", she argued that Somerville was a "fantastic role model" for young female scientists."
The new 10-pound notes will be issued in the second half of 2017. For more information on Mary Somerville, you can visit her Wiki.
Thanks to Frank for giving me the heads-up!
Update 28-4-2016: below the final design for the note.
The Reserve Bank of Australia will issue the first note of its new series, the 5-dollar note, on 1 September 2016. This is National Wattle Day in Australia, where the wattle is a family of trees and shrubs common in Australia. The new notes will each feature a different type of Australian wattle.
The new notes will retain the same colors, size and people depicted on each denomination. The full design of the new notes will be revealed mid-2016.
Recently I attended a seminar on underground banking (for an explanation click here. It's in Dutch but I think it's also understandable for non-Dutch speakers). Among the many interesting things explained there, they also showed how easy it is to transfer large sums of cash money when you just use large denominations. For instance, when you use 500-euro notes, a pile of 100 notes totals 50,000 euro but is so small you can carry it in a envelope. A quarter of a million euros can be carried in a carton of milk.
It's precisely this reason why more and more people are calling for the abandonment of the 500-euro notes. In 2010, Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency estimated that 90 percent of 500-euro banknotes sold from exchange bureaus in the country were in the hands of organized criminals. The European Central Bank has now indicated that it will indeed investigate if the 500-euro note has to be continued.
"From my point of view, the arguments in favour of keeping it are less and less convincing," [executive board member Benoit] Coeure said, but acknowledged that some people, "notably in Germany" were concerned about the disappearance of payments in cash. The €500 bills account for just 3% of the total number of banknotes in circulation, but 28% of the total value, according to ECB statistics. Any decision regarding their possible withdrawal would be taken by the ECB's governing council, the 25-member board comprising six executive board members and the 19 central bank governors of the member states.
The 500-euro banknote is one of the most valuable banknotes in the world. In 2014 Singapore decided that the then most valuable banknote in the world, its 10,000-dollar note, wouldn't be issued anymore. If the 500-euro would suffer the same faith, the soon to be issued 1,000-francs from Switzerland would be the most valuable note in the world.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has narrowed its list of faces to put on the new polymer 10-pound note down to three scientists. According to this statement the two men and one woman are: James Clerk Maxwell, Mary Somerville and Thomas Telford.
"More than 400 people took part in the selection of the 128 nominees, who had to be Scottish historical figures or people who had made a major contribution to Scotland in science and innovation.
Maxwell (1831-1879), a hero of Albert Einstein, discovered the unified theory of electricity and magnetism.
Somerville (1780-1872) was a pioneer as a female scientist when women’s participation was discouraged. Her writings ultimately led to the discovery of the planet Neptune.
Telford (1757-1843) built more than 1,000 miles of roads in his lifetime and in Scotland designed harbors, tunnels and the Caledonian Canal."
I'll put my money on mrs. Somerville. They could all go on the new banknote of course but I think Mary Somerville is the most politically correct choice to make, which seems to matter these days on the British isles.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP: the Central Bank of the Philippines) had announced last year that the 100-piso note would get a slightly different color because too many people confused it with the 1,000-piso note. Well, on 1 February 2016 the new radically different banknote has been issued to the public. Below the old 100-piso note, the new 100-piso note and for the sake of comparison the 1,000-piso note.
The BSP: "Compared with the current color of the 100-Piso banknote in circulation, the new 100-Piso banknote will have stronger mauve or violet color on the obverse and reverse sides. All the other features of the said banknote will remain the same."
The Scottish Clydesdale Bank plans to introduce a new 10-pound note made of polymer featuring the image of poet Robert Burns. The back of the note show views of Edinburgh, including the castle.
The Clydesdale bank introduces around £400m worth of new notes every year and is the largest issuer by volume of notes in Scotland. The new notes will enter circulation in 2017.
... and the world sang in joy! Because good heavens, these are some nice looking banknotes! The Maldives Monetary Authority has issued the new series today on 26 January 2016 according to this press release. I described the new series in detail in this post so I'll refer you to that post if you want to know more details.
That gives me more space to just show the front of the new series in all its glory:
This week we've seen some excitement in the world of banknote collecting because the Norges Bank 'unveiled' the design for the new banknotes. Yes, again. Because if I recall correctly (and yes I do) I already wrote in this post from 9 October 2014 what the new banknotes of this series would look like.
"On each obverse side, the designer has placed a signal flag from the maritime alphabet. The flags represent the letters N, O, R, G and E and therefore spell either NORGE or NOREG (not in order by denomination).
The cubic patterns on the reverse side represent pixels and mosaics. The patterns depict the coast, the horizon and the motif. The organic pattern is an abstraction of the sea. Both the cubic and organic patterns follow the Beaufort scale as an expression of wind speed. This affects the waves in the sea. On the lowest denomination note, the wind is light, and there are short cubic forms and long, gentle waves in the organic pattern. On the highest denomination note, the wind is strong and creates elongated rectangular forms and short waves."
So sure, I can show the designs again because they are quite original and really stand out internationally. Do I also like them? Well, I know some people are going absolutely mental over them and call them the future of banknote design. I guess that makes me an old fart because I'm not very impressed. Sure, the pixelated back is very original but also looks like something I could have made myself. And I suck at Photoshop. The front of the notes is more to my liking but is also rather simple and minimalistic.
Perhaps the note will look better in real life and beauty is of course (as always) in the eye of the beholder but I won't be standing in line to get these for my personal collection I think.
50 kroner
Front: Utvær Lighthouse in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway's westernmost point. Signal flag: Letter R. Back: Pixel motif on the horizon: lighthouse on the horizon. Cubic pattern: 1.6 metres per second. Organic pattern: Light breeze, gentle waves.
100 kroner
Front: The Gokstad ship from the 800s, with the Norwegian-designed X-Bow hull developed by Ulstein Design & Solutions AS in the background. Signal flag: Letter O. Back: Pixel motif on the horizon: Cargo ship. Cubic pattern: 3.4 m/s. Organic pattern: Gentle breeze. Crests begin to break.
200 kroner
Front: Cod and herring. The background drawing shows mesh from a fishing net. Signal flag: Letter N. Back: Pixel motif on the horizon: Fishing boat. Cubic pattern: 8 m/s. Organic pattern: Fresh breeze. Wave heights of 1 m or more.
500 kroner
Front: Colin Archer, boat design. Anders Beer Wilse, photographer. Linn Krogh Hansen, photographer. Signal flag: Letter G. Back: Pixel motif on the horizon: Oil platform. Cubic pattern: 13.9 m/s. Organic pattern: High wind. Sea heaps up, white foam from breaking waves.
1,000 kroner
Front: Motif: Wave in the sea. Signal flag: Letter E. Back: Pixel motif: Horizon. Cubic pattern: 20.8 m/s. Organic pattern: Strong gale. High waves. Dense foam is blown along wind direction.
The Reserve Bank of India has issued two slightly redesigned banknotes of 500 and 1,000 rupees. Special features to aid visually impaired people have been added to the existing design. On the front at the left and right edge markings have been added.
Also a novel serial number is now in use with numbers in ascending size.
The National Bank of Argentina has announced that a new family of banknotes will be introduced as a measure to curb the rising inflation in the country. Right now the highest denomination in the country is the 100-pesos note but these are sometimes hard to get because people need so much of them.
That is why new notes of 200-, 500- and 1000-pesos will be introduced. In mid-2016 we will first see the 200- and 500-peso note followed by a 1000-peso note and also newly designed 20-, 50-, 100-peso notes in 2017. The theme of the new notes are no longer hero's from South-America but will be indigineous animals on the front and the habitat they live in at the back.
The notes will have the following images:
Right now only the designs of the 200- and 500-peso notes have been publicized but if this is the standard we can expect from the new series I believe we will have a family of notes which is going to be VERY popular with theme collectors.
Update 2 May 2016: The 500-pesos note will be issued in July 2016 and the 200-pesos note will follow in the fourth quarter of 2016, Telam reports.
The Bank of Israel has issued the second new note in the new series on 23 December 2015. The 200-NIS note was announced in April 2013 and has been delayed a couple of times. The blue note is 150x71 mm in size and features an image of the poet Nathan Alterman. This page from the Israeli Foreign Affairs office describes the new note in more detail. More information on the whole new series can be found on this page from the Bank of Israel.
The National Bank of Ukraine has announced that an updated banknote of 500 hryvnia will be issued on 11 April 2016.
The note will have updated security features like a windowed security thread and a SPARK patch. The images below are from the Flickr-page of the National Bank of Ukraine.
