We've had a big family party last weekend which is always lots of fun, especially when the weather is as good as it has been for the past few days. It's also a good opportunity to see some family members who have been travelling a lot lately. Like a trip to Armenia and Georgia, which are two countries I probably will never visit.
Did I get a souvenir? Well, in fact... I got the BEST type of souvenir. Two new banknotes! The 1000-dram note from Armenia (P55b) and the recently issued 50-lari note from Georgia (P77) which looks great in real life.
Sad news this week when it was announced that the famous Dutch banknote designer Ootje Oxenaar passed away at the age of 87. Ootje Oxenaar studied visual arts at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague starting in 1947. From 1966 until 1985 he worked for the Nederlandsche Bank, where he designed two series of well known banknotes (the 'Erflaters' series featuring famous Dutch people from the past, and perhaps the most famous series of Dutch banknotes featuring for instance a lighthouse, a sun flower and a sandpiper).
He was the Director of Art and Design, Post and Telecommunications of The Netherlands. Oxenaar taught at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the graphic design department.
Fortress Paper has announced that the Central Bank of the Bahamas will use the Durasafe substrate developed by their subsidiary Landqart AG for the new 50- and 100-dollar banknotes. These new notes are planned for introduction in 2018. This relatively new material is also used in the new banknote series of Switzerland.
From the press release some more explanation about Durasafe: "Durasafe® is an innovative composite paper-polymer-paper banknote substrate developed by Landqart in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich. Durasafe® is composed of two cotton paper outer layers with a fully transparent polymer core. The polymer core in Durasafe® adds stability and higher mechanical strength properties to banknotes as well as high security features. The substrate's unique properties allow windows to be formed virtually anywhere on the banknote and can contain a watermark and security fibres as well as traditional security features, including easy-to-recognise banknote paper tactility."
The Central Bank of Bangladesh has introduced uodated versions of their 100- and 500-taka notes, according to an article in the Dhaka Tribune. The new notes look the same as the existing ones but have an added security feature: a 4-mm Kinetic StarChrome windowed security thread which has been developed by De la Rue.
From the security features website of De la Rue: "Kinetic StarChrome®, also part of Cash Supply Chain, is a specialist security thread combining the two proven technologies of Starchrome® and Classical Holography. This combination delivers a high-impact feature which is easily seen and understood by the public, yet complex for counterfeiters to attempt to simulate. Available in a range of widths, window lengths and demetallisation options making it suitable for all denominations, Kinetic StarChrome® is also fully compatible with machine readability and high speed banknote processing."
Yesterday was a very good day with regard to the mail I received. Two letters from Canada and Fiji with two of the best looking banknotes of 2017 so far. Welcome to my collection!
It looks rather nice, don't you think? As a matter of fact: this is the second brownish note which has been presented recently which I like (after the new 10-pound note from the Bank of Scotland). I might have to revise my opinion on the color perhaps?
The Bank of Canada has issued its 10-dollar commemorative banknote on 1 June 2017. This spectacular new note is (of course) already nominated for Banknote of the Year 2017 or I would have nominated it.
You will all understand I ordered it immediately for my collection. Read more about what's on this note in my previous post.
The new note has a portrait of the Scottish novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott on the front together with an image of The Mound, the historic head office of the Bank of Scotland. The date on the note reads 1 June 2016. The back of the note shows the Glenfinnan Viaduct (yes, the one pictured in the Harry Potter movies) with a steam locomotive hauling a heritage tourist train. The locomotive is a preserved Stanier "Black 5", which was designed for the London, Midland and Scottish railway and is often seen on the West Highland line.
The new note is designed by De la Rue and incorporates the same security features we saw in the last 5-pound note: the "window effect" which will be built into the windows of the image of The Mound, and the "rolling bar" metallic ink which changes color as the note is moved. A new feature is the "tactile emboss" (created by a series of raised dots) which will aid the visually impaired.
I'm usually not a huge fan of a brown-green colorscheme but this one looks rather good. Maybe because of the nice train...
From the BBC website an interesting article on the discovery of vast amounts of old Russian banknotes.
"A group of explorers in Russia have found around a billion roubles in old Soviet money at an abandoned mine, but it's all completely worthless.
The group from Saint Petersburg, who publish a blog on abandoned sites across Russia, came across the money after following rumours that large quantities of cash had been dumped in old missile silos near Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Komsomolskaya Pravda news website reports. After travelling for several hours across rough terrain in Russia's Vladimir region, they found the mine literally overflowing with cash.
The site contains an estimated one billion roubles ($18m; £13.5m at current exchange rates, or $33.3m at the "official" Soviet rate in 1991) in Soviet Union banknotes of various denominations issued between 1961 and 1991, all no longer legal tender in the Russian Federation. The mine had been flooded in recent years, leaving what was essentially a swamp of banknotes bearing the face of Vladimir Lenin, the explorers' YouTube channel shows."
What a find! You can read the rest of the article here. The video of this discovery can be viewed below.
The Banco Central del Uruguay has announced that a new polymer commemorative note of 50 peso will be issued to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Central Bank. A total of 10 million notes will be issued.
No word yet on the issue date. The Central Bank was established on 6 July 1967 but an issue around that date seems a bit soon.
As mentioned earlier the Banque Central de Madagascar is preparing to issue a new series of banknotes. The series will contain the denominations of 100-, 200-, 500-, 1,000-, 2,000-, 5,000-, 10,000-, and 20,000-ariary.
It has now been made clear that the denominations of 2,000-, 5,000-, 10,000-, and 20,000-ariary will be issued in July 2017. The denominations of 100-, 200-, 500-, 1,000-ariary will be issued in September 2017. The current banknotes will remain legal tender.
To celebrate this event the Norges Bank has begun a campaign featuring the video below which is 'celebrating' the new 200-kroner note which has the image of a cod on the front.
The video features the trio KLM along with a certain 'DJ Codfather' singing the song "Torsken kommer II – Torske kroner nå" which roughly translates into something like "the cod is coming". The rest of the text is more difficult to translate into English according to Bank President Øystein Olsen.
I wish more central banks made bizarre funny videos like this!
Hello, I'm Steven Bron and welcome to my blog on banknotes! Here you can find: breaking news, background articles and of course my personal collection (world notes or at least one from each country, commemorative notes and polymer notes).
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