Seasons Greetings and a Merry Christmas to everyone. Enjoy the holidays and be safe too. 
1 December 2013 - Northern Ireland Bank of Ireland - A full set of new notes issued by one of the four major banks in Northern Ireland, Bank of Ireland. The four notes issued are the £5, £10, £20 and £50. The designs of these notes are very similar to those commemorative notes issued in 2008 celebrating 400th Year of Granting License of Old Bushmills Distillery, but this time it also includes the £50 denomination note. All notes have the same design on both front and back and all notes are dated 1st January 2013. Unlike the 2008 issues, all notes are also signed by Stephen Matchett who is the Bank's current Chief Financial Officer.
3 December 2013 - Mauritania 100 Ouguiya 2011 Hybrid Note. This is a reprint of the previous 2008 dated issue. Whilst this is a reprint with new date and new signatures, there are few changes to this note as compared to previous note. The most noticeable changes are: -2) Serial number on the note is printed twice instead of 3 times;
3) The colour on the guilloche with latent image on the left edge changed from yellowish to purple;
4) Three large vertical Arabic number of٦٠٦ is added on the right of the note. Unfortunately the number (606) is not showing on my scan;
5) The silver security thread is partially exposed;
6) The font for the signatures authority is not the same (slightly larger/longer);
7) On the back, the wording "CENT OUGUIYA" and the numeral numbers of both "100" are also not the same;
8) The number of "100" on the lower right has been redesigned and shifted closer to the bottom edge.
I have also posted the 2008 note for comparison.
6 December 2013 - Lebanon 50,000 Livres (LL) Polymer Commemorative. This is Lebanon first polymer note issued on 22.11.2013 to celebrate the country's 70th year of independence from the French. Lebanon declared its independence in 1943 whilst the French were still under Nazi occupation. The design of this note, with one side is in Arabic and the other side is in French. To the locals, this note raised a fair bit of controversial including the design of the note. By examining the note on hand, I can understand how the locals felt. Some locals even said that the note looks more like a 70 Livres than a 50,000 Livres value. In addition to this, it also has a spelling error with the text where the word 'Independence'' is spelled in English rather than in French (Independance). Despite the minor error, but still significant to the locals, the central bank decided to release the note for this special occasion celebration. This is a limited edition issue of 50,000 notes, with two prefixes printed ie normal D/00 and replacement prefix of D/99. It appears that all notes have been sold out on the day of release. It is believed that the bulk of these notes will ended up in collector hands as collectable souvenir. 
8 December 2013 - Australia 1994 Annual Portfolio issue. This is the second of the Portfolio series with two of the $20 notes (last paper 1993 and first polymer 1994) issued in a hard cover folder with matching serial numbers. Both numbers are also printed in red. This is the only paper Australia $20 paper banknote that printed with 2 letters prefix as all normal paper notes were printed with 3 letters prefix since 1966. The serial numbers range printed are from AA94 000 101 to AA94 001 000. However only 900 sets were released at $350 per set. The remaining 100 sets were retained by the central bank.
11 December 2013 - Australia Annual Premium Sets with Matching Red Serial Numbers with "AA94" first prefix in red. Only 1000 sets printed with 900 sets released to the public. The remaining 100 sets were retained by NPA for their archive purposes. One will wonder if these will ever be released to the public. If they do, it will be very expensive and most likely will be offered via public auction, which is a pity as many collectors will never be able to get them unless you are willing to pay high price from them. Let's hope that they will remain archived as long as they can. 
15 December 2013 - Argentina 100 Pesos Eva Peron B Series Commemorative. This is the reprint of the 2012
Eva Duarte de Peron note which was released on 21.09.2012 commemorating
the 60th anniversary of the death of Eva Peron. This B series print has
some minor changes in design to the note, both front and back. The most
noticeable on the front is that the little flower design on the left has
shifted away from the edge and some minor changes on the back too, including the value "100" on the middle of the edge to the top left hand corner of the note. This note was
released on 2.7.2013. 
20 December 2013 - Papua New
Guinea 2 and 100 Kina Commemorative ND2013. These two notes were
released on 4.11.2013, celebrating the country's central
bank's 40th anniversary. Unlike those paper/hybrid commemorative notes
issued in 2008, these new notes are printed on polymer. The design of
these new notes are the same as those previously issued but with
difference commemorative logo added to the note. Also interesting is
that the prefix of these notes are printed with normal 2-letter alphabet
and then followed by the 2 digits "40" (40th Anniversary). 
21 December 2013 - Indonesia 2013 annual set. This is the last of the series of Indonesia banknotes printed with high value denominations in "Thousand". Come January 1st, 2014, many billionaires and millionaires in the country will come crashing down to planet earth and join among (almost) with the rest of the world but without the title "aires" to their names. From 1.1.2014, Indonesia will release new banknotes with new denominations by removing three zeros from the current series. This means that the denomination of notes to be issued are from 2 to 100 Rupiah instead of 2,000 to 100,000 Rupiah. I am wondering what sort of impact and confusion will have on such changes? 
22 December 2013 - Malaysia One Ringgit (DF Prefix) variety print. This is the new variety printed for the RM1 polymer 2012 note. I have posted the comparison between the two notes. The prefixes of these notes posted are "DD" and "DF". It is not sure if "DE" prefix has been issued or if prefix "DE", if printed, was from the first print or the revised issue. The difference between these two notes are that white diagonal lines have been added to the bank's name and as well as the value "1" on top of the note; and also on the tiny horizontal bar and the value in word "Ringgit Malaysia" at the bottom. It appears that the design on the back remains unchanged.
25 December 2013 - Australia 1997 Annual Premium Set with red serial numbers. This is the first full set of banknotes printed with red serial numbers. A total of 1000 sets were printed but only 900 sets were released to the public. The remaining 100 sets were retained by the bank's archives. These Premium sets were either sold individually or as a full set with individual selling price as $5 ($50), $10 ($65), $20 ($85), $50 ($115) and $100 ($165) or full set at $480.Premium set - 900 sets at $480 each; and
Deluxe set - 4000 full sets at $263 each.
Like the Premium sets, the deluxe sets were also sold either as individually or as full set, however the quantity issued were not the same for each denominations with quantities issued as follows: $5 (9,000), $10 (8,000), $20 (6,000), $50 (4,000) and $100 (4,000). As you can see, only 4,000 full sets were printed for the deluxe prints.
29 December 2013 - Malaysia 5 Ringgit 2004 Polymer Update. Here are the complete first and last prefixes of notes printed by two difference imprinters known to collectors. The series was first introduced in 2004. It is not sure when the second print was released to the public, but it is believed that it was either in 2010 or 2011. Also it is not clear if the switched in printer has anything to do with the NPA bribery scandal which was first exposed in the Australian media in mid-2009. The ZA replacement note came from the second printer, as NPA never print such prefix (replacement) for all their polymer printing works.
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