World's Currencies

[Foreigner]

Which countries have bank notes you liked/disliked?

Some remain unchanged for decades. The US paper notes, China's with Mao's portrait, Thailand's with the (late) king's image.

The Euro polymer notes are colourful. Here's a sample selection of other notes:

The world's most beautiful banknotes, in pictures - Expat

 

[Wong.a]

I like the security features (especially the foil) of the new Benjamins.

Old Zimbabwean currencies with ridiculous denominations are quite amusing.

 

[leadman]

I'm a member of The IBNS (International Banknote Society) and each year we vote for the Banknote of the year. You would not believe the debate that goes on over the note; this year it was the NZ $5 note. Polymer is now dominating the worlds currency (sans USA) mainly because they last much longer and you can incorporate more counterfeiting deterrents in the note. One of the "new" breed are in South and central America which are wonderful, but I prefer their very early stuff, which were a work of art, pre- 1910's.

 

[Colin 2905]

this year it was the NZ $5 note.

We returned from a trip to NZ early this year with the grand total of NZ $15 in notes; an NZ $10 and an NZ$5 (and probably a few coins). I couldn't recall anything striking about the NZ $5 note, so I just went and dug it out. Seems that I have a much older note (s/n starts with AH, if that tells you anything), not one of the new ones that won the award. Even the NZ $5 in the samples that Foreigner linked to is one of the older ones.

I'm not a fan of the larger denomination GBP notes. They don't fit in my wallet all that well, and many places won't accept £50 notes.

 

[Foreigner]

The NZ $5 note indeed stands out, with Sir Edmond Hillary's portrait:

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&...V4cy1JK9o2LHbWwtA&sig2=hnZlugu-NSivyPYx9lk2iA

 

[leadman]

A Kazakhstan note won it last year and a higher denomination was offered again, but lost. The Kiwi's $10 and $20 notes are stunning, the Argentinians have got a new one that is quite and the USA has a lovely $1 bill, OH sorry its the same basic design for the last 90 odd years. With Australian, kiwi and some other notes you can tell the age because of the first two numbers. You can still find $20 and $50 starting with 95, which makes them 21 years old, staggering for a banknote compared to paper. The US $20 has a 7 year life and the $1 about 5 year. A great aussies invention from the CSIRO, but personally prefer paper (cotton/hemp etc).

 

[odysseus]

Which countries have bank notes you liked/disliked?

Some remain unchanged for decades. The US paper notes,

The thing is the US seem to change their notes regularly; much more than us. It's just the overall impression is similar, but if you look at notes from different decades you can see that they do get changed quite often.

 

[JohnK]

Greece had some unusual currency in the 30's and 40's. Tiny notes with huge denominations such as 10,000,000 drachmas. Not sure if that was enough for a loaf of bread though.

 

[leadman]

The thing is the US seem to change their notes regularly; much more than us. It's just the overall impression is similar, but if you look at notes from different decades you can see that they do get changed quite often.

US currency is a bit confusing; the current $1 bills are Federal Reserve Notes (FRN) and effectively not changed since 1963. Before that they had what was called Silver Certificates (SC), and the Small Series like the current ones started in 1928. Colours did change and a bit of the pattern, but Washington was on the front and redemption end in 1968 for SC's. Then there was Legal Tenders and prior to 1928 they had the "large notes" which some are quite nice. Great story behind the notes like the Gold Certificates, National Banknotes, even going back to the 1860's with the Confederate Notes. But the $1 has not changed other than dates and signatures for 53 years. The other denominations have recently changed to improve anti-counterfeiting methods.

 

[seanpodge]

Which countries have bank notes you liked/disliked?

Some remain unchanged for decades. The US paper notes, China's with Mao's portrait, Thailand's with the (late) king's image.

The Euro polymer notes are colourful. Here's a sample selection of other notes:

The world's most beautiful banknotes, in pictures - Expat

They did do a security update on the Y100 last year. Main obvious differences are the number 100 is written in gold and the metal security strip has changed. The old Y100 are still vaild, though.