New K100 note launched

22.11.05

By Winis Map

Papua New Guinea has a new K100 note and a K1 coin.
 

Finance and Treasury Minister Bart Philemon launched the new note and coin at Parliament House State function room last Friday night.
 

Note Printing Australia, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of Australia, printed the K100 while a Canadian company minted the K1.
 

Business development manager — banknotes, of Note Printing Australia, Barry Brady, told The National that they printed K200 million worth of K100 banknotes.
 

No information was disclosed on the total value of the K1.
 

He said the notes were recently shipped to Papua New Guinea and they would be issued to the commercial banks by BPNG today.
 

BPNG Governor Wilson Kamit said at the launching that the K100 was made of polymer banknote and not paper note and the K1 was redesigned to have it smaller but all its other features like the hole in the middle and the art design remained the same.
 

Mr Philemon thanked the Central Bank for introducing the notes and coins in the financial market.
 

“It is 30 years since the kina was introduced in April 1975. Initially, only the K2, K5 and K10 notes were issued.
 

“The K20 note was introduced in 1978 and the K50 note was introduced in 1989,” Mr Philemon said.
 

“It is timely that in the year of our 30th Anniversary, we introduced the K100 note.”
 

Mr Philemon was optimistic that the introduction would not cause inflation.
 

“The new notes have a higher denomination but they will circulate more slowly,” Mr Philemon said.
 

He said the new K100 notes would replace the existing K50 notes in some large cash transactions.
 

Mr Philemon said the old K1 coins would be withdrawn in the next 12 months and replaced with the new coins.
 

He said the one toea and two toea coins would also be withdrawn in the next couple of months and the only coins that would be in circulation would be five toea, 10 toea, 20 toea, 50 toea and K1.
 

He said the business community and the public would be informed to charge the prices of their goods and services accordingly.
 

Mr Philemon has also caution the public on the use of the notes and coins.
 

“Despite the introduction of the new notes, I would still encourage people to use the bank’s services as much as possible.

“It is risky to carry around large notes since they can get lost or be stolen. It is much safer to use other methods of payments if possible,” Mr Philemon warned.