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The Bangladesh Bank has released a new 10-taka note. The note has a similar design to the previous issue but it is now an entirely lithographic printing. Some modifications have been made to the design to accommodate the change in printing. Most noticeable is the white border around much of the text in the centre of the note. This new design appears with the date 2008, as does the last of the older 10-taka notes.
[Submitted by Mohammed Islam — December 2008]The new Minister of Finance for Kuwait, Mr. Mustafa Jassim Al-Shamali, now has his signature on the banknotes. At this stage, only the 5-dinar note (issued from 1 October 2008), the 1-dinar notes (issued from 1 December 2008) and the ¼- and ½-dinar notes (issued from 8 December 2008) have been reported with the new signature.
[Submitted by Mohammed Yousef — November/December 2008]The Bangladesh Bank has released a new 1000-taka note. The predominantly pink note was released on 27 October 2008.
[Submitted by Claudio Marana and Aidan Work — October 2008]The new signature of Farhat O. Bengdara has been confirmed on all denominations currently circulating in Libya; i.e. 1-, 5-, 10-, and 20-dinar notes. In addition, a new 50-dinar note has been released in Libya. It is understood that this note was issued on 25 September 2008.
[Submitted by Claudio Marana — September 2008]The Bangladesh Bank has issued a new 2-taka note with the signature of Mohammed Tareq, the new Finance Secretary. The note is dated 2008 but all other features are the same as the previous issue. There was no offical announcement of the introduction of this note, but it was first observed in mid September. The 500-taka note dated 2008 has been in circulation from early September.
A new 1000-taka note is still anticipated, probably at the end of October, but there has been no official announcement on its release.
[Submitted by Mohammed Islam — September 2008]The 10-dinar note has been seen with the new signature of Farhat O. Bengdara. Other denominations with this signature of the current Governor of the Central Bank of Libya may also be in circulation, but have not been confirmed.
[Submitted by Nazir Rahemtulla — September 2008]On 15 September 2008 the Central Bank of Qatar released new low denomination notes. It is not certain what changes have been taken place but there have been efforts to make the notes discernable to sight-impaired people. There may also have been improvements to security features.
[Submitted by Murray Hanewich — September 2008]BAGHDAD: The Central Bank of Iraq has taken steps to rebase the Iraqi dinar and issue new banknotes, a senior official at the bank has said.
“We have reached a conclusion that we should take off three zeroes from the current Iraqi dinar banknotes,” Mudher Qasim, the bank’s senior advisor, told Dow Jones Newswires in an exclusive interview.
“The process is progressing and we have taken some steps,” Qasim said. “We will issue a decision in due time.”
Qasim didn’t give a timeframe when that decision would be taken, but said printing new banknotes and fully replacing old notes would take two years from the time the decision is taken.
Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said his ministry had suggested to the central bank to take off three zeroes from the current Iraqi dinar banknotes. “The Central Bank governor (Sinan Al-Shabibi) has informed me that the bank is in the process of taking that decision,” Jabor told the state-run Al-Iraqia Satellite Channel this week.
“The Central Bank of Iraq supports what the finance minister was saying,” Qasim said.
If the rebase decision is taken, it means a current 25,000 Iraqi dinar banknote will become 25 dinars, for example. When three zeroes are knocked off the Iraqi dinar, a dollar will equal only 1.20 dinars.
From the Gulf Times Doha, Qatar
The State Bank of Pakistan completed the new series of banknotes by issuing new 5-Rupee and 50-Rupee notes on 8 July 2008.
[Submitted by M. Ameen, S. Yangpa, M. Hanewich, S. Ahn, and I. Ahmad — July 2008]The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has issued a new 200 dirham note; which was placed into circulation on Tuesday 27 May 2008. The issue is similar to the 1989 version of this note, but with certain important changes: the color has changed to an orange-light brown; an optically variable strip is on the right-hand side of the note; there is a see through register; and a metallic printing of the coat of arms. The note is dated 1425AH and 2004AD, although it is released in May 2008.
[Submitted by Mosab Ibrahim and Owen Linzmayer — May 2008]It has been reported that the Bangladesh Bank plans to issue a new 1000-taka note in October 2008. Additionally, it is reported that the 2-taka bank note is to be discontinued. It is also rumoured that the Bangladesh Bank will issue a polymer 5-taka note in the near future.
[Submitted by Mohammed Islam — May 2008]The United Arab Emirates Central Bank has issued a new 20 AED banknote. It is similar to the previous issues but has an additional coffee pot and denomination as electrotype watermarks. The Banknote is dated 2007AD-1428AH. The Bank has also issued 5 and 10 AED notes dated 1428-2007. They are similar to the 2004 issue.
[Submitted by Mosab K. Ibrahim — April 2008]Iraq has issued the 5000-dinar note signed by the governor of the central bank, Sinan Al Shibeebi. This note was previously signed by the deputy governor, Falih Dawood Salman. The date of the new note is 2006, as opposed to the earlier issue which was dated 2003.
[Submitted by Haider al Saffar — April 2008]Pakistan released a new 20-rupee note on 22 March 2008. The predominantly orange note, measuring 65 x 123mm, replaces the predominantly brown note, measuring 63 x 123mm, issued for the past two years. The design appears to be unchanged from the note it replaces. It is reported that the reason for the change in colour was due to the similarity in colour between the old 20-rupee note and the 5,000-rupee note, which evidently caused some confusion. Interestingly, the new note carries the date '2007', suggesting these note were printied some time ago.
[Submitted by Mohammed Ameen, Syed Zaidi and Zeeshan Ali — March 2008]Bahrain introduced its new series of notes on 17 March 2008. The web site of the Central Bank of Bahrain has a display of the notes.
[Submitted by Owen Linzmayer and Cristiano Fistarol — March 2008]After many years of anticipation, news is surfacing that Bahrain is about to release a new series of banknotes. The newly designed banknotes were presented to King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on 27 February and the release of the notes is eagerly anticipated.
On 6 September, 2006, a law was passed that replaced the Bahrain Monetary Agency with a central bank, which took over the role of issuing currency. The new issue will be the Central Bank of Bahrain's first issue and it ushers in a new era. No date has been announced for the release of the new bank notes.