The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 41, September 25, 2005, Article 20

MORE ON THE TRANSPARENT BANKNOTE FEATURE

Wendell Wolka writes: "The transparent "window" is virtually a
standard feature of notes printed on polymer substrate rather than
conventional paper. They come with and without designs on them
and are becoming more sophisticated on newer designs. Most
notes are printed by Note Printing Australia (NPA) along with the
Canadian Bank Note Co. and one or two central governments.
Some twenty-six countries have issued or are issuing polymer notes."

Don Cleveland writes: "I really enjoy E-Sylum. I thought I
would sit back and let someone else set the record straight about
see-through currency. Since no one has, I feel the following might
be of interest.

The first see-through device, or "window" appeared on the
all-polymer, Australian ten-dollar banknote of 1988,
commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the founding of
Australia. Not only was the banknote a commemorative, but
it was an experiment by Note Printing Australia (NPA) to see
how well they held up in circulation. For approximately one
year, all paper $10 banknotes were withdrawn. The banknote
was a huge success and a couple of years later, all Australian
banknotes of each denomination were printed on polymer with
windows. NPA has since produced polymer banknotes for a
significant number of countries around the world, including New
Zealand, Brazil, Romania, Singapore, Indonesia and others.
As far as I know, the Bulgarian banknote with a see-through
window may be the first with that device totally produced
outside NPA. I say "totally produced", because Taiwan bought
polymer sheets from NPA a few years ago, but printed the
banknotes on the sheets in Taiwan."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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