In Other News…

• The Central Bank of Honduras has announced that a new 200 lempira note will be issued in September. Notes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 lempiras currently circulate in Honduras. The last note to be introduced – the 500 – was in 1997.

The contract for the new notes has been awarded to Giesecke+Devrient and will include a ‘very novel’ (and as yet unspecified) security feature. Around 20 million notes will be issued.

• The National Bank of Georgia will issue new 5 and 20 lari (GEL) banknotes next month. Their designs are the same as the current notes (issued in 2017 and 2016 respectively), but the background colours have been modified to avoid confusion between the two.

• A special ceremony has been held at the Japan Mint, attended by Finance Minister Aso Taro, to mark the start of production on the country’s new 500 yen coins.

The new coins are the same size and have the same basic design as the current ones that entered circulation in 2000, but are a two-colour, three-metal structure, made in a process called bicolor cladding.

The coin edge also features helical ridges with two different pitches, which the Mint claims is the first time this technology has been used on circulating coins.

The issue of the coins has been postponed from the start of this year because of delays in modifying coin dispensers and vending equipment caused by the pandemic.

According go the Finance Ministry, about 5 billion 500 yen coins are in circulation, and they will remain in use after the new ones are issued this November.

• Iran’s new transitional 100,000 rial/10 toman banknote is now in circulation, following the issue of a new 50,000 rial/5 toman earlier this year.

The note features a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini. Security features include a gold-to-purple colour shifting thread, see through register and watermark matching the portrait, with an electrotype of the denomination numeral. The number 10 appears on the front, whilst the number 100,000 appears on the reverse, with the zeroes in a lighter colour.

Iran’s currency is in the process of having four zeros removed, and is being renamed the toman.

• The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has issued new 2,000 and 20,000 som banknotes – both new denominations to add to the 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 50,000 and 100,000 soms already in circulation.

The design theme of the notes is based on the Great Silk Road and the history of the ancient city of Bukhara and the Republic of Karakalpakstan, both located within the borders of modern-day Uzbekistan.

The 2,000 som note features OVI®, a latent image, and new tactile feature for the visually impaired, but no security thread. The 20,000 som incorporates a 3mm wide BREEZE™ thread from Crane Currency (the first banknote to do so), along with OVI, a latent image and see-through feature. Both incorporate a watermark of a camel and the denomination numeral in electrotypes.