May Postings 2015

1st May 2015
Scotland Clydesdale Bank plc - This is a new £5 Commemorative Polymer note, issued to celebrate the 125th Year of the Forth Bridge in Scotland. The Forth (Rail) bridge was built in 1890 by Sir William Arrol (1839-1913), a Scottish Civil Engineer, under his company name of Sir William Arrol & Co, based in Glasgow. Allan Stewart was the resident engineer for this project. The bridge took 8 years to build and cost 73 lives, at a cost of approx. £3.2 million. The bridge, spans 2,528.7 meters long, connects the cities between Edinburgh and Fife and was opened on 4.3.1890 by the Prince of Wales, the late King Edward Vll. It should be noted that this Forth bridge is a railway bridge and was built solely for trains only, with daily traffic between 190-200 trains passing through the bridge. One must not confuse this bridge with the Forth Road Bridge (Suspension bridge built in 1964) which is a more modern bridge used by motor vehicles. In addition to the notes, the bank also released a booklet/wallet type detailing the history of this Forth bridge. The Forth Bridge is a Scottish landmark, and had been featured in classic movie (Alfred Hitchcock 1935 movie - The 39 Steps), advertisements, the 2000 Millennium countdown and even in video games. This is the first polymer note issued in Great Britain. A total of 2.0 million pieces issued. The size of this new polymer note (125mm x 65mm) is also smaller than the current paper £5 (135mm x 70mm) in circulation. However this is not the first polymer note issued in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (aka United Kingdom or Britain). In 1999, the then Northern Bank Ltd (now trading as Danske Bank) issued a £5 polymer note to celebrate the year 2000 Millennium. The Clydesdale Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Australia Banking Group (NAB Group) which has their Global Head Office in Melbourne Australia. Coincidentally right up to 2004, the Northern Bank in Northern Ireland was also owned by the NAB Group before it was sold. The 2007 Bank of Scotland Bridge series notes also feature the Forth bridge on the reverse side of the £20 note. This Clydesdale Bank polymer note was released on 23.03.2015.
Tags: Scotland Clydesdale Bank plc: Commemorative: Polymer:

6th May 2015
Nigeria - This 100 Naira Commemorative note was released on 19.12.2014. The note was purposely printed to celebrate the country's 100th year of amalgamation between the north and the south which formed the country Nigeria. The note is printed with the commemorative text of "Centenary 1914 - 2014". This is also the first note in the world that has been printed with the Quick Recognition (QR) Code. An interesting point about this note is that if you look carefully on the design, this note has no Arabic wring printed at all, unlike those previously issued. However the value is printed in three difference local languages. Are these the languages of the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo tribes? English is still the official language used in the country. Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa with population in excess of 174+ million. The country is basically divided into two with the Muslims majority in the north and the Christians majority in the south.
Tags: Nigeria; Commemorative.

9th May 2015
Hong Kong - A complete set of 2012 dated notes issued by the three major commercial banks in Hong Kong - HongKong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Bank of China (BoC), with denominations from $20 to $1000. These are reprints of the 2010 dated notes which were first released between 2010 and 2012. Banknotes issued by HSBC has the highest circulations in the territory, then followed by SCB and BoC.
Tags: HSBC: SCB: BoC:

13th May 2015
Thailand - I have added four notes to my previous posting. These notes added are the new series issued since 2011. The notes added are the 20, 50, 100 and 500 Bahts all with new portrait of the Thai King. The only denomination missing is the 1000 Bahts which I believe is not released yet. Since 2011, two signatures varieties have been issued for the 100 Baht denomination.
Tag: Thailand

16th May 2015
Scotland, Bank of Scotland - Here are the updates of two notes, £5 and £10 both dated 19.01.2009 all bearing the signatures of J Eric Daniels (Governor) and Archie G Kane (Treasurer). These are first reprint of the initial new Bridge series of 2007 issues. With these two notes, I now have a complete set for the 2009 prints. from £5 to £100.
Tag: Bank of Scotland 

20th May 2015
Venezuela - 2007 series first reprints. Here is a complete set of the Bolivares notes issued with date printed as 24 Mayo (May) 2007. In this series the 10 Bolivares denomination was not issued. These were the reprint of the first issue dated 20 March 2007. The series depicts famous Venezuelans on the front and wild animals on the back.
Tag: Venezuela

25th May 2015
Indonesia - This is the first of the re modified series of Indonesia Rupiah that was released on the 17.08.2014. The Central Bank intends to issue these notes in stages and the 100,000 Rupiah was the first to release. The design of this note is more or less the same as the previous issues except with minor changes to some security features, colour and wordings printed on the note. The most noticeable changes are the new wordings added, Negara Kesatuan (One Nation or United Country). The words Bank Indonesia on the front has been replaced by Republik Indonesia and all font sizes have been reduced too on both front and back. The letters of (H.C.) are also added to the portraits of Soekarno and Hatta. Other changes are the title of signatures, year issue etc.
Tag: Indonesia 

28th May 2015
Hong Kong Government Special Administrative Region (SAR) -  I have added the $10 Polymer note dated 1.1.2014 to my collections. This is the forth issue since the first $10 Polymer note was introduced in 2007.
Tags: Hong Kong SAR 

30th May 2015
Mongolia -Few updates here. These are just odd notes collected. Nothing special about these.
i) 2003 - 5000 Tugrik; and
ii) 2011 - 500 and 1000 Tugrik.
Tags: Mongolia 2003: Mongolia 2011