Banknotes of the Australian dollar

The banknotes of the Australian dollar were first issued on 14 February 1966, when Australia adopted decimal currency.

Former series (paper)

The $5 note was not issued until 1967. The $1 (10/-), $2 (£1), $10 (£5), and $20 (£10) had exact exchange rates with pounds and were a similar colour to the notes they replaced, but the $5 (£2/10) did not, and so was introduced after the public had become familiar with decimal currency. Notes issued between 1966 and 1973 bore the title "Commonwealth of Australia". Starting from 1974, the title on the new notes only read "Australia" and the legal tender phrase was also changed from “Legal Tender throughout the Commonwealth of Australia and the territories of the Commonwealth” to “This Australian Note is legal tender throughout Australia and its territories". The $50 note was introduced in 1973 and the $100 note in 1984, in response to inflation requiring larger denominations for transactions. The one dollar note was replaced by a coin in 1984, while the two dollar note was replaced by a smaller coin in 1988. Although no longer printed, all previous issues of Australian banknotes are considered legal tender.

Paper Series
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description		Date of issue
Front	Back				Front	Back
		$1	140 × 70 mm	Brown and orange	Queen Elizabeth II	David Malangi (artwork)	1966
		$2	145 × 71 mm	Green and yellow	John Macarthur	William Farrer	1966
		$5	152 × 76 mm	Mauve	Sir Joseph Banks	Caroline Chisholm	1967
		$10	155 × 76 mm	Blue and orange	Francis Greenway	Henry Lawson	1966
		$20	160 × 81 mm	Red and yellow	Sir Charles Kingsford Smith	Lawrence Hargrave	1966
		$50	165 × 82 mm	Gold, blue, brown and green	Howard Florey, Baron Florey	Sir Ian Clunies Ross	1973
		$100	172 × 82.5 mm	Light blue and grey	Sir Douglas Mawson	John Tebbutt	1984
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre.

Current series (polymer)

In 1988, the Reserve Bank of Australia issued plastic, specifically polypropylene polymer banknotes (which were produced by Note Printing Australia), to commemorate the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia. These notes contained a transparent "window" with an optically variable image of Captain James Cook as a security feature. Australian banknotes were the first in the world to use such features. All current Australian banknotes also contain Microprinting for further security.

First series (1988)

There were initial difficulties with the first banknote issued; the $10 note (pictured above) had problems with the holographic security feature detaching from the note. However, the Reserve Bank saw potential in the issue of plastic banknotes and commenced preparations for an entirely new series made from polymer, commencing with the $5 note in 1992. In 1995, the design of the $5 note was updated to match the rest of the New Note Series, with additional slight changes in 1996. In 2001, a special commemorative $5 note was produced, but in 2002, the previous version's production commenced again.

From 2002, the design of all notes (except for the $5 note picturing the Queen) was slightly changed to include the names of the people pictured on them under the portraits, and swapping the order of the signatures of officials on the notes.

Today all Australian notes are made of polymer.

Second series (1991–2012)
Image		Value	Dimensions4	Weight4	Main Colour	Description				Date of
Front	Back					Front	Back	Transparent Window Image	Embossing5	printing	issue
		Original $51	130 mm × 65 mm × 0.1130 mm	0.764 g	Pale mauve	Queen Elizabeth II	Parliament House and old Parliament House	Gum flower	none	1992–1993	7 July 1992
		Recoloured $5	130 mm × 65 mm × 0.1256 mm	0.783 g	Violet/pink					Currently printing	24 April 1995
		Federation $52	130 mm × 65 mm × 0.1259 mm	0.815 g		Sir Henry Parkes	Catherine Helen Spence	Leaf shaped window	"5"	2001	1 January 2001
		$103	137 mm × 65 mm × 0.1294 mm	0.841 g	Blue	Banjo Paterson	Dame Mary Gilmore	Windmill	Wavy lines	Currently printing	1 November 1993
		$20	144 mm × 65 mm × 0.1332 mm	0.900 g	Red	Mary Reibey	Reverend John Flynn	Compass	"20"	Currently printing	31 October 1994
		$50	151 mm × 65 mm × 0.1400 mm	0.955 g	Yellow	David Unaipon	Edith Cowan	Southern Cross	"50"	Currently printing	4 October 1995
		$100	158 mm × 65 mm × 0.1408 mm	1.006 g	Green	Dame Nellie Melba	General Sir John Monash	Lyrebird	"100"	Currently printing	15 May 1996
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre.
Remarks Some members of the public had difficulties in differentiating between the $5 and $10 especially in poor light conditions.[citation needed] Commemorating the Centenary of Federation. It also features the text of the speech Henry Parkes gave to parliament in favour of federation in microprint, on the side featuring his face. This note features excerpts of text from Banjo Paterson's most famous poem "The Man From Snowy River" intertwined with the text "TEN DOLLARS" in microprint on the front, and the text of Mary Gilmore's patriotic poem No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest on the reverse. Thickness and weight of notes is +/-5% per 1000 notes Embossing is inside the shiny, transparent window.

See also

• List of people who have appeared on Australian currency

External links

1. Australian Decimal Banknotes
2. The Money Tracker site allows users to track Australian banknotes as they circulate around Australia.
3. The Reserve Bank of Australia has a full timeline of Australian banknotes.