| Brief History of Polymer Banknotes since the early 1980. |
| Welcome to the world of polymer banknotes
collection. This site is created to display
a collection of plastic or non paper based
banknotes. All notes displayed on this site
are neither rare or scarce. Whilst some people
would collect banknotes as an investment,
I am treating this as a hobby, and a serious
one too! The collection of polymer banknotes have come a long way. In the early 1980, the tiny Caribbean nation of Haiti became the first country to issue a non cotton based banknote of 50 Gourdes using polymer material called Tyvek© for general circulations. The materials used for these notes were manufactured by Du Pont and the notes were printed by American Bank Note Company (ABNC). In 1982, more Haitian tyvek© notes were issued with denominations of 1, 2, 50, 100, 250 and 500 Gourdes. The only denominations not printed on Tyvek© were the 5, 10 and 25 Gourdes. Like all previous Haitian paper banknotes, specimen notes were also printed for all Tyvek© notes. Following the release of the Haiti Tyvek©, in 1983, both Costa Rica and Isle of Man (UK) also issued a single note each, been a 20 colones Tyvek© (ABNC) with 'Z' prefix and a £1 Bradvek© note (Bradbury Wilkinson) with prefixes 'M', 'N' & 'P', respectively. At the time of the Isle of Man print, Bradbury Wilkinson was a wholly owned subsidiary of ABNC and the notes were printed under licenced. In addition to those Haiti and Costa Rica, ABNC also printed tyvek© samples notes for four other Latin American countries, namely Ecuador (10 & 100 Sucre), El Salvador (5 & 10 Colon), Honduras (10 Lempiras) and Venezuela (10 & 20 Bolivar). These notes were purposely printed to promote the wider use of plastic banknotes in the South America region, which did not eventuate. Whilst the introduction of plastic banknotes would seem to be an improvement in term of durability as compared to cotton based counterpart, unfortunately these notes were shortlived due to various problems associated with the ink used, which do not seem to be able to stay permanently on the note in a tropical or humid environment. Sadly to say, after few years in circulations, they were replaced by paper banknotes. In 1988, the Isle of Man's Bradvek pound notes also ceased printing following the withdrawal of the licence by ABNC when Bradbury Wilkinson was sold to Thomas De La Rue. Only 2.5 millions of these notes were printed. After many years of R&D by the Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), on 26th of January 1988, Australia issued it's first 10 dollars Guardian© polymer banknote commemorating the Bicentennial of European Settlement in Australia. These notes were the first banknotes in the world to be printed on a non-fibrous polymer substrate. Unfortunately, like many new inventions which is not always trouble free, these new notes were forced to withdraw 3 days after it was released due to faults with the Optical Variable Device (OVD - Captain Cook). It was reported by a local TV station that the OVD can be easily removed with a pencil eraser and these notes can be identified by its first two digits serial numbers commencing '93', '94' or '96' (i.e. xxxx 93x xxx). A second print was re-ordered and released on 24/10/1988. The folder version with date overprint was released on 08/07/1988 for A$14.00 each. Since the introduction of the Haiti tyvek notes in the early 1980, 27 countries (latest Nigeria 20 Naira) have issued polymer/plastic banknotes, but mostly for commemorative purposes only. Majority of the materials used for these notes printed were supplied by Notes Printing of Australia (NPA). Despite the advantages of polymer banknotes over paper, such as additional security features, longevity (five times longer), better anti-counterfeiting, more hygienic and not to mention that its recyclable, only 4 countries, namely Australia (1996), New Zealand (1999), Romania (2001) and Vietnam (2006) have fully converted to polymer banknotes. One significant draw back about polymer notes is that it is not as costs effective in term of manufacturing as compared to paper. However, few other countries have adopted a mixture of paper and polymer notes and the next country expected to convert fully to polymer banknotes is Papua New Guinea. This is expected to take place sometime in 2007. Whilst collecting polymer banknotes can be fun, beware of any 'error' polymer notes offered for sale, regardless of whatever price they asked for. Whilst some of these error notes could be genuine, however it is those with missing prints that one would have to be very careful, especially those with completely missing prints. It is believes that these notes are not genuine error but rather than fake. These so called error notes were made on purpose by using chemical means (acetone/nail polish). If such notes are ever offered to you, please be very careful. As a matter of fact, be very careful when come to dealing with polymer error notes. Such acts of mutilating or disfiguring a legally tender banknote is against the law in some countries. If you are a new comer to this hobby, and you have any questions on any notes displayed on this site or queries regarding this hobby, please feel free to contact me. I am always keen to have a chat with you and hopefully to learn more from you too. As my entire collection is not complete, I hope you would enjoy viewing them. All notes displayed are in un-circulated, unless otherwise stated. Should you require any current un-circulated Australian polymer banknotes of any denominations, please feel free to contact me as I may in the position to assist you. All enquires are welcome. Please do not use any of the scans for commercial purposes. Also please remember that counterfeiting is illegal in any laws, languages or countries. And finally, if you can assist me in anyway to complete my collection, please feel free to contact me. As you will see, I still have a few missing notes in my collection. To view the notes, simply click onto the yellow hyperlinks above. Thank you for visiting my site and hope to see you again soon! |