In Other News…

• Ulster Bank, one of Northern Ireland’s three note issuing bank, has now released its new £50, the design of which focuses on the province’s industries and the achievements of women in Northern Ireland.

The notes are printed on SAFEGUARD polymer substrate and use a portrait orientation. They include two windows, a De La Rue holographic stripe that secures both sides of the banknote with DEPTH™ and PUREIMAGE™ effects, Enhanced GEMINI™ print feature and a tactile emboss feature. The new £50 follows the launch of polymer £5, £10 and £20 notes launched in 2019 and 2020 respectively and complete Ulster Banks’ transition to polymer banknotes.

One of Northern Ireland’s other two note issuing banknote – Danske Bank – has now issued £10 and £20 polymer notes, but has no plans to replace its £5 and £50 paper notes. The other, Bank of Ireland, has issued polymer notes in the £5 and £10 denominations only.

A fourth, First Trust Bank, has been withdrawing its banknotes since its announcement in 2020 that it would cease issuing these. After 30 June, any remaining First Trust banknotes in circulation can no longer be used, but remain legal tender and can be exchanged for the Bank of England equivalents indefinitely.

• After several delays, the Central Bank of Sudan has issued a new high denomination 1,000 Sudanese pound (SDG) to cope with rising inflation.

The new note has been produced on Landqart’s Durasafe® substrate and the key security features are a RAPID® thread from Crane and a MOOV™ patch from SURYS depicting a hibiscus (Sudan’s national flower). This is understood to be the first circulating note to feature the latter, which comprises two high diffractive registered colours at a reflection angle that produce both movement effects when the note is tilted top to bottom and a pronounced colour change when rotated at 90°.

Other features include a watermark of the Secretary Bird, a see-through image of a sunflower, microtext and tactile marks for the visually impaired.

• Bangladesh Bank has issued a commemorative 100 take banknote marking the opening of the Padma Bridge. The 6.5 km long road and rail bridge, spanning the Padma River and directly connecting Dhaka with the southwestern area of the country, is considered the most challenging construction project in the country’s history. The note features images of the bridge on both the front and the reverse.

• The Central Bank of Venezuela has put new 50 and 100 bolívares digitales into circulation, completing the issue of the redenominated currency, from which six zeroes were removed last year. All the banknotes feature a portrait of the South American liberator and political leader Simon Bolivar on the front, and the Battle of Carabobo (which led to Venezuela’s independence from Spain) on the reverse.

• The fifth banknote to be issued in the Central Bank of Azerbaijan’s new series is the 10 manat, just three years after the previous version was issued. The theme of the new note is ‘history’ and, in keeping with the other new notes, it is horizontal on the front, and vertically orientated on the reverse. Security features include a LEAD stripe with multiple optical effects and RollingStar® security thread from Louisenthal, SPARK Live, watermark and marks for the visually impaired.

The 20 manat was issued earlier this year, and the 1, 5 and 10 manats early last year. Azerbaijan also issues 100 and 200 manat notes, although it is not known if and when these will be redesigned in keeping with the other notes.