The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu has completed the issuance of its latest banknote series with the launch of the new polymer banknote VT 500.

The new VT 500 banknote was launched on the 27 October 2017.

According to a press release issued by the Central Bank, it took eight years to complete the launch of the new banknote series. The first denomination to be circulated was the VT10,000 released in July 2010. The VT200, VT1,000 and VT2,000 were all released in June 2014, and the VT5,000 was issued in July earlier this year.

All the denominations of the Vanuatu polymer banknote family use CCL Secure’s Guardian™ polymer substrate.

The design of the new polymer family of banknotes incorporate security features including: clear windows featuring images of shells, shadow images which are visible when the notes are raised to a light source, CCL Secure’s G-Switch™ colour changing feature, offset and intaglio print features, microtext, see through patterns, patterns visible under ultraviolet light and tactile features to assist those with visual impairments to identify the note’s denomination.

“The new VT500 banknote incorporates the theme of ’culture’ and features the frontage of the original ’Nakamal blong ol Jifs’, and other cultural activities such as sand drawing and traditional dancing.”

The banknote has been printed by Note Printing Australia Limited (NPA), a Subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Images to be released soon.