The Reserve Bank actually is responsible for issuing Australian banknotes,
but
we're
also responsible from – all the way from production through to
circulation
and then withdrawal and ultimate destruction of the banknotes, and the
purpose
of that is to ensure that the Australian public can be confident in the
banknotes
and use them in transactions and as a store of value.
It's only been the Reserve Bank's job since earlier in the 1900s. In
fact,
prior to Federation the commercial banks printed their own banknotes and
then
eventually that power passed to the Commonwealth and then eventually to the
central bank.
Coins actually aren't printed by the Reserve Bank; coins are the
responsibility
of the Mint which is based in Canberra.
So the first thing about our Australian banknotes is they're plastic and
this
is quite unusual and it was the first time in the world really that a
plastic
banknote had been issued, prior to that banknotes were always issued on
paper.
And that actually is a very important security feature. It does two things.
It means it's harder for people to reproduce a banknote on plastic and,
in addition, they're much more durable, they last longer in circulation,
so that's a really key thing about Australian banknotes.
The design of the banknotes is based on the plastic and it's also got
security
features in it. The first as I said is plastic, that's a very important
thing so it should – if you scrunch it up it should spring back or if
you try to tear it, it shouldn't tear easily. But there's also the
clear window at the bottom of all the banknotes, and that shouldn't be
a stuck on piece of plastic, that should be integral to the banknote.
There's a number of other security features as well. The printing needs
to
be
– you need to see very, very sharp printing and in fact on every
banknote
there's this little tiny micro printing and if you get a magnifying
glass
out or if you have really good eyes you might be able to see it, it's
very, very precise printing and you can't reproduce that in a
counterfeit.
They are quite colourful and that's a very deliberate decision. For
people
with
vision impairments who perhaps don't have very clear vision, the bright
colours help them to distinguish between the banknotes. There's a number
of other things which help them as well. All the banknotes are a slightly
different size, they get longer as they get higher value and they've got
big bold numerals on them as well, again to assist people with vision
impairment.
There's around about 1.3 billion banknotes in circulation and that in
total
value
is around about $61 billion.
Now counterfeiting isn't a problem in Australia and I think that
reflects
the
fact that we've had such a secure banknote with the plastic banknotes
since the mid 1990s so it's a long time. But it isn't a problem.
However,
we always want to make sure that we're keeping one step ahead of the
counterfeiters.
Technology these days, the price is coming down, it's getting easier to
access this technology and what we want to do is make sure we just stay one
step ahead.
So the banknote really is, I've often heard it said, the business card
of
the
country. It's what people see when they come into the country, it's
the first thing, so you want something that reflects your cultural heritage
or history and in our case what we have on our banknotes from our 10 upwards
is we have two people, a male and a female on each side of the banknote and
those people have a story behind them, and when you look at the banknote you
will see pictures which represent that person's story in our history.
The five dollar is a little different because it has Parliament and the
Queen on
it, so it more represents democracy, Australia as a democracy.
