ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman is reminding retailers to prepare for the release of the new $5 note from the Reserve Bank of Australia. The note will be issued into circulation from September 1, 2016, with increased security measures.
Key aspects of the design – colour, size and people portrayed – are retained for ease of recognition and to minimise the disruption to businesses, Mr Zimmerman said.
“There is also a new ‘tactile’ feature to help the vision-impaired community distinguish between different denominations of banknotes.” he said.
Innovative new security features have been incorporated to help keep Australia’s banknotes secure from counterfeiting. Retailers who currently have equipment that is used to count, sort or weigh bank notes and have not been in contact with their equipment supplier are strongly advised to discuss their requirements immediately.
“Included [in the new note] is a distinctive top-to-bottom window,” RBA Governor Glen Stevens said. “Each banknote in the new series will depict a different species of Australian wattle and a native bird within a number of the elements. On the $5 banknote, these are the prickly Moses wattle and the eastern spinebill.”
The objective is to ensure that members of the public are able to identify and use the range of new security features on the new $5 banknotes when they start to receive them.
The current series of banknotes can continue to be used even after the new banknotes are issued.