$100 bills arrive next year
 

The Fiji Times

11.02.06

The Reserve Bank of Fiji has appointed British company De La Rue Ltd to print a series of new design bank notes including $100 bills to be released early next year.

Governor of the Reserve Bank, Savenaca Narube said the company would print 196 million notes at a cost of $17million.

The new notes would also have additional security features to curb the increase in the number of counterfeit notes being circulated.

Explaining the printing of $100 bills, Mr Narube said it was in keeping abreast with the increase in the purchasing power of consumers.

"We have already done our sums and have decided to issue $100 bills," he said.

De La Rue has been printing Fiji currency notes since 1914 and was selected ahead of none other companies as it was more competitive. Four companies that tendered for the printing of the notes were the Canadian Banknote Company, De La Rue International Ltd, Germany's Giesecke and Devrient GmBH and Francois-Charles Oberthur of France.

"The overall quality and presentation of all tenders received was extremely competitive and comprehensive particularly the inclusion of new banknote security features," Mr Narube said.

He said the new currency design was an important milestone for the bank.

"In this review we have been able to improve banknote durability and upgraded security and recognition features of the banknotes," Mr Narube said.

The new design banknotes would feature images of local people, flora and fauna, culture and tradition, industrial and economic activity and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth 11.

The design committee was chaired by RBF board member Kanti Tappoo.

Members of the committee were Sagale Buadromo, Ikbal Jannit, Dick Watling and Radike Qereqeretabua.

The new notes would include a visually impaired feature and vary in sizes lengthwise.

The smaller the denomination, the smaller would be the size of the note.