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Reserve Bank launches new $5 and $10 banknotes

Prime Minister John Key along with the Reserve Bank today launched the first two denominations in a series of new banknotes that include new security features.

Prime Minister John Key along with the Reserve Bank today launched the first two denominations in a series of new banknotes that include new security features.

The $5 and $10 final banknotes were revealed at an event at the Bank in Wellington, and will start to be released from mid-October 2015.

Governor Graeme Wheeler said that while the banknotes are technologically sophisticated and difficult to counterfeit, they are also aesthetically pleasing.

"The polymer notes are striking in their design and innovative in their security with the transparent holographic window and colour-changing bird a world first." said Mr Wheeler.

The new banknotes will be the same sizes and denominations as the current banknotes, and they will continue to be made of flexible polymer. While the banknotes are brighter, bolder, and clearer, the themes of the notes remain the same, with the same respected New Zealanders, the Queen and flora and fauna remaining central to the designs.

Mr Wheeler said all five denominations in the new banknotes carry the same security features that will help New Zealanders verify them with ease, and help to ensure that counterfeiting levels in New Zealand remain very low.

From mid-October the Reserve Bank will issue only the new $5 and $10 banknotes. The public may not see a new note for some time because the $5, and in many cases $10 notes, are not dispensed from ATMs.

The new banknotes, which will be called Series 7, will co-circulate with the current Series 6 notes. Both sets of banknotes will be legal tender.

The remaining $20, $50, and $100 banknotes in the new series will be released from April 2016.

Security features of the new banknotes include:

  • the holographic window Inside the large clear window is a hologram featuring a fern and a map of New Zealand. It also contains the same bird featured on the left-hand side of the note. There is also an embossed print denomination below the hologram.
  • the colour-changing bird – the colour changes when the note is tilted with a rolling bar going diagonally across the bird. On the reverse of the note, in the same spot, there is a similar effect in the fern window.
  • the puzzle number –when held up to the light, the notes show coloured irregular shapes on the front and the back, which combine like puzzle pieces to show the note's denomination.
  • the raised ink – the raised ink denominations can be felt on the front and back, as can the raised print in the words "Reserve Bank of New Zealand Te Pūtea Matua" and "New Zealand Aotearoa".

Media contact:
Vivienne Sanders, External Communications Advisor
Ph 04 471 3662, 021 069 0782, [email protected]