According to MRI Bankers’ Guide Turkmenistan has modified its 1 and 5 manat notes. The 1 and 5 manat notes dated 2012 have been improved by the addition of a transluscent band in the back.
I’ve tried to find the official press release on the site of the Central Bank of Turkmenistan but Google Translate doesn’t now the language yet which makes it hard to search. I’ll take MRI’s word for it though. Update: this seems to be it.
The Bank of England has put out a tender of 1 billion Pound for the printing of all its banknotes. This means that De la Rue could lose its contract but also that for the first time in history British Pounds could be printed by a foreign printer. De la Rue has been the printer of Britains notes since 2003.
The new tender is for a 14 year contract: 2015 – 2029. Apart from De la Rue, the tender had been sent to a number of foreign printers. Among them Landqart and Note Printing Australia, a division of the Reserve Bank of Australia. There are a few demands in the tender:
Printing must take place in the Bank’s former facility in Debden, Essex. This facility is now run by De la Rue. If another party wins the contract, the facility with its 200 employees moves to the new owner.
Any bidder must have experience of banknote printing, having printed volumes of at least 500 million notes at a single site in a year within the last three years.
This could be another blow to De la Rue if they lose this contract. The orders from the Bank of England make up for 5% of their annual revenue.
Reminder for anyone who wants to visit: IBNS Netherlands holds its annual fair TODAY in Hilversum. You can read more about it in this post. The fair will be held from 10:00-16:00 at Hotel Lapershoek, Utrechtseweg 16 in Hilversum.
The Bank of Uganda has announced it will demonetize the 1987 series of their banknotes on 30 March 2013. This includes the 1000, 5000, 10.000, 20.000 and 50.000 Shillings as well as the 10.000 Shillings commemorative note. Only the 2010 series will remain legal tender in Uganda. The 1987 series can be viewed in this PDF.
The 50.000 Shillings from the 2010 series which will remain legal tender:
Today came the news that famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer died at the age of 104 years old. His work in the new capital Brasília is pictured on this 100 Cruzados banknote from 1986 (P211). On the back of the note you can see Catetinho and the Palácio da Alvorado (Palace of Dawn). More info from banknotes.com:
Catetinho (designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer) is the first building ever built in Brasilia. Catetinho is the house where [president] Juscelino Kubitschek lived while the city was built from 1956 to 1960. Brasilia is one of the only cities in the world that was completely planned, and the building of the city in just 4 short years is a first in the world. Catetinho is now open to the public, and has been turned into a mini-museum about the city's history and the life of Juscelino Kubitschek. Palácio da Alvorada (Palace of Dawn) is the official residence of the President of Brazil. The palace was designed, along with the rest of the city of Brasília, by Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated in 1958.
Norway has announced on 4 December 2012 that they started a project to design new banknotes. This will be their 8th series of banknotes. The main reason for designing the new series is to enhance the security of the notes. They expect it will take several years before the new notes will be issued in Norway. The first step is choose a theme for the new series. Once the theme has been approved, the national bank will choose the main elements of the banknotes' design. You can read more about this announcement in the press release by the Norges Bank.
Dutch organization MPO will hold a trade fair in Wassenaar (near The Hague) on 9 December 2012. There will be stamps, coins and (most important for us) banknotes. You can also get free valuation of your banknotes. A couple of times a year they also organise auctions which can be a real bargain hunt. The catalogue of the latest auction can be found here and the winning bids can be found here. Some really good deals!
According to this site with news on Thai and other Asian banknotes, the new 20 Baht from Thailand (series 16) should be issued tomorrow 5 December 2012. I have no news about this at the moment and the Bank of Thailand is also silent on the topic. As is stated in this press release, the size and colors of the new banknote will be like series 15 (pictured below).
If there are any new developments, I will of course report on it. It would be nice to have a new Thai banknote!
More info: all series of Thai banknotes on this great site of the Bank of Thailand.
Could these be the new banknotes from Libya? There are several shown in this video which I found on Jay's World Banknotes.
Apparently the following images appear on the notes:
1 dinar - Front: Unknown. Back: Flag of Libya and peace doves. 5 dinars - Front: Ottoman Clock Tower. Back: Zeus Temple in Cyrene. 10 dinars - Front: Portrait of Omar Al Mukhtar. Back: Al Mukhtar horsemen. 20 dinars - Front: Al Ateeq mosque in the city of Oujlah in the oasis. Back: Traditional school in Ghdamis. 50 dinars - Front: Italian Lighthouse of Sede Khrebeech. Back: Stone arch in Tadrart Acacus.
Update 6 December 2012: Banknotenews has published more pictures on their site. It's however pretty clear that these are other banknotes than the ones in the video. The Central Bank of Libya has put up a link to the above video claiming it's the Deputy Governor discussing the new banknotes (or that's what I got after translating the Arab text of the popup in Google Translate). So which one is the correct new set? More and more sites claim that it will be in fact the set below which will be issued in the beginning of 2013.
Remember when I wrote about the upcoming new banknotes in Fiji last week? And their plans to replace the image of Queen Elizabeth II with local flowers and perhaps the head of somebody else? Well, apparently not everyone is wild about this idea. The local chiefs have protested the decision, stating that she is still the queen of Fiji and has been given the title of highest chief in the country.
Still another 8 days to go before we are sure what the new notes will look like...
John Pettit Rare Banknotes from Australia is in financial trouble, according to the Australian Financial Review. The losses are big it seems. Pettit claims he had become to much of a collector. Yeah, we all know that feeling...
The Reserve Bank of Fiji has today announced that a new series of banknotes and coins with new obverse designs will be officially unveiled by the president of Fiji, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau on 12 December 2012. Flora and fauna designs of Fiji will replace the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II across all denominations. Members of the British royal family have featured on Fiji’s currency since 1934. The reason given for this step by the Reserve Bank is that it’s “time to move forward and promote our very own unique national treasure and the biodiversity that lies all around us.“ Along with the design changes, the Reserve Bank will also introduce a $2 coin to replace the $2 note. Governor Whiteside said that a number of the new flora and fauna designs selected are unique to Fiji. “Some clearly belong on the endangered species list and all Fijians must be made aware of this fact and how critical it is to preserve our heritage.“ The new 2012 flora and fauna design series notes and coins will come into circulation 2 January 2013. (Source)
Update 30 November 2012: The Telegraph reports that Fiji might also replace the Queen's head for that of the new dictator Commodore Frank Bainimarama or the military-appointed president Epeli Nailatikau. This news is denied at Fiji itself. We'll have to wait another two weeks to be sure!
Banknotenews reports that the 2012 series of the 10, 50 and 100 Gulden notes have been confirmed. Nothing special about that but here is an odd twist however:
10, 50, and 100 gulden notes (BNA B25, B27, and B28, respectively) have been confirmed dated 1 juni 2012 with the same signature combination as the preceding issues (Jerrald M. Hasselmeyer and Emsley D. Tromp). These notes are rather unusual in that they bear the issuer name as the Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen, even though the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved as a unified political entity on 10 October 2010, and the old bank became the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en St Maarten which had plans to introduce a new common currency, the Curaçao St Maarten guilder (CMG) in 2012.
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."
Hello, I'm Steven Bron and welcome to this special blog on banknotes with a space and astronomy theme! My primary focus is on notes that show astronomers and their work, solar systems, planets, constellation, space crafts, satellites, observatories, telescopes and so on. My goal is to describe every banknote from around the world with such a theme.
You can find my main blog on the world of banknotes by clicking here.
Disclaimer: most of the pictures on this blog are from Banknoteworld.com.