In Other News…

• Japan will begin issuing newly redesigned ¥500 coins from around November, the Finance Ministry has said, after their initial release in the first half of the fiscal year from April was postponed due to the pandemic, and in particular delays to updates to ticket and automated teller machines.

The Ministry plans to issue around 200 million of the new coins in fiscal 2021, although the approximately 5 billion coins currently in circulation will still be usable.

The new coins do not differ substantially from the current design, which was introduced in 2002. But they are bimetallic, with different sized grooves on the rim and dated with the Reiwa era (that of the current Emperor Naruhito, as opposed to the Heisei era of his father, Emperor Akihito, who abdicated in 2019).

The government also plans to release new banknotes in 2024, the first redesign since 2004, featuring figures from Japan’s modern history.

• The Bank of Scotland has unveiled the design for its new £50 polymer banknote, which will go into circulation in July, a month after the new Bank of England £50 enters circulation.

The colour of the note has been changed from green to red (the same colour as the current paper £100, which implies that the latter will not be issued in future), and the images on the reverse, in keeping with the theme of bridges on the bank’s other notes, feature the Falkirk Wheel – a rotating boat lift in central Scotland that connects two major canals – and Kelpies (mythical water spirits in the shape of horses’ heads) pulling a canal barge. It also includes the poem Steam Barge by William Muir.

The design theme on the front of the note remains unchanged, with images of The Mound in Edinburgh and the poet Sir Walter Scott, but it will contain a window with holographic foil stripe.

• The Bank of the Republic of Haiti has announced the introduction of two new high denomination banknotes – the 2,500 and 5,000 gourdes – once a presidential decree authorising their issue is published. The current highest denomination is the 1,000 gourdes, which was introduced in 2004.

• The Central Bank of the UAE has approved a new series of banknotes, its third, on the theme of ‘Year of the 50th’, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the United Arab Emirates in December 1971 following independence from Britain.

• The Saudi Central Bank has issued a new 200 riyal banknote commemorating the fifth anniversary of the ‘Vision 2030’ blueprint for the development of the country. It is the first note of this denomination, and also the first to carry the new name of the central bank (renamed from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority last year).

The front of the note is in keeping with the style of the other notes in the series, issued in 2017, and features a portrait of the former King Abdulaziz Al Saud, along with the Vision 2030 logo, a LEAD Micro-Mirror foil stripe, MOTION® thread and SPARK® Live patch.