Banknotes of the Australian dollar

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The banknotes of Australian dollars, issued in 1966.

1 Paper series
2 Polymer series
- 2.1 Remarks
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Paper series

The $5 note was not issued until 1967. The $1 (10/-,) $2 (£1,) $10 (£5,) and $20 (£10) had exact exchange rates with pounds, but the $5 (£2/10) did not, and so was introduced after the public had become familiar with decimal currency. Notes issued between 1966 and 1972 bore the title "Commonwealth of Australia". Starting from 1973, the title on the new notes only read "Australia". The $50 note was introduced in 1973 and the $100 note in 1984, in response to inflation requiring larger denominations for transactions. The one dollar note was replaced by a coin in 1984, while the two dollar note was replaced by a coin in 1988.

Paper Series
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description		Date of issue
Obverse	Reverse	Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Obverse	Reverse	Date of issue
		$1	140 × 70 mm	Brown	Elizabeth II	David Malangi	1966
		$2	152 × 76 mm	Green	John Macarthur	William Farrer	1966
		$5		Violet/pink	Joseph Banks	Caroline Chisholm	1967
		$10		Blue	Francis Greenway	Henry Lawson	1966
		$20		Red	Charles Kingsford Smith	Lawrence Hargrave	1966
		$50		Yellow	Howard Florey	Ian Clunies Ross	1973
		$100		Light blue	Douglas Mawson	John Tebbutt	1984
For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

[edit] Polymer series

The first polymer banknote, the 1988 Australian $10 note

In 1988, the Reserve Bank of Australia issued plastic, specifically polypropylene polymer banknotes (which were produced by Note Printing Australia), to commemorate the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia. These notes contained a transparent "window" with an optically variable image of Captain James Cook as a security feature. Australian banknotes were the first in the world to use such features.

Despite initial difficulties, the Reserve Bank saw potential in the issue of plastic banknotes and commenced preparations for an entirely new series made from polymer, commencing with the $5 note in 1992. In 1995, the design of the $5 note was updated to match the rest of the New Note Series, with additional slight changes in 1996. In 2001, a special commemorative $5 note was produced, but in 2002, the previous version's production commenced again.

In 2002, the design of all notes (except for the $5 note picturing the Queen) were slightly changed to include the names of the people pictured on them under the portraits, and swapping the order of the signatures of officials on the notes.

Today all Australian notes are made of polymer.

Second series (1991- ) [1]
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description			Date of
Obverse	Reverse	Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Obverse	Reverse	Transparent Window	printing	issue
		Original $5¹	130 × 65 mm	Pale mauve^[1]	Queen Elizabeth II	Parliament House	Gum flower	1992	7 July 1992
		Recoloured $5		Violet/pink	Queen Elizabeth II	Parliament House	Gum flower	Currently printing	24 April 1995
		Federation $5²		Violet/pink	Henry Parkes	Catherine Helen Spence	Leaf shaped window and "5"	2001	1 January 2001
		$10³	137 × 65 mm	Blue	Banjo Paterson	Dame Mary Gilmore	Windmill	Currently printing	1 November 1993
		$20	144 × 65 mm	Red	Mary Reibey	Reverend John Flynn	Compass and "20"	Currently printing	31 October 1994
		$50	151 × 65 mm	Yellow	David Unaipon	Edith Cowan	Southern Cross and "50"	Currently printing	4 October 1995
		$100	158 × 65 mm	Green	Dame Nellie Melba	Sir John Monash	Lyrebird and "100"	Currently printing	15 May 1996
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre, a standard for world banknotes. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

[edit] Remarks

The colour faded with wear and tear
Commemorating the Centenary of Federation
This note features all the text from Banjo Paterson's most famous poem "The Man From Snowy River" in microprint on the front, and the text of Mary Gilmore's patriotic poem No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest on the reverse.

[edit] References

^ (2000) in Ian W. Pitt: Renniks Australian Coin and Banknote Values, 19th ed., Chippendale, N.S.W.: Renniks Publications, 168. ISBN 0-9585574-4-6.

[edit] External link

Australian Decimal Banknotes

v • d • e Australian currency
Topics	Australian dollar · Reserve Bank of Australia · Note Printing Australia
Mints	Royal Australian Mint · Melbourne Mint · Perth Mint · Sydney Mint
Coins	1¢ · 2¢ · 5¢ · 10¢ · 20¢ · 50¢ round · 50¢ · $1 · $2 · Pre-£ coins · Coins of £ · Coins of $
Banknotes	$1 · $2 · $5 · $10 · $20 · $50 · $100
Historic	Pound sterling · Australian pound · ½d · 1d · 3d · 6d · 1/- · 2/- · 5/- · 10/- · £1 · £5 · £10 · £20 · £50 · £100 · £1000