Zambia recalls plastic bank notes
 

BBC News, 29.09.03

Zambia is facing embarrassment after the serial numbers started to rub off its new hard-wearing banknotes.

The polymer notes were introduced on 26 September to replace the 500 and 1,000 kwacha denominations, among the most widely used bills in circulation.

But almost immediately the ink began to rub off many of the newly-issued plastic banknotes - the result of a flaw in the manufacturing process.

The Bank of Zambia has now been forced to recall them.

The notes were the first plastic ones to be introduced in Africa, and could save Zambia up to 17bn kwacha ($3.7m; £2.2m) over five years if - as promised - they stay in service up to five times longer than paper notes.

Zambia's current currency has a reputation for looking tattered and even filthy, particularly the lower-denomination notes which change hands most frequently.

The Bank of Zambia said the flaw affected only about 4m kwacha out of an issue totalling several billions.

It will be several weeks before the replacements hit the streets.

Further afield

The company responsible for printing them lost no time in admitting that the ink had simply not been left to dry for long enough.

"It's an unfortunate mistake, and it's entirely our fault," Bernard Dickens of the Canadian Bank Note Company told the BBC. "We are working to rectify that mistake, and it won't recur in the future."

The firm is keen to take the technology, now standard in Australia, New Zealand and in several other countries, to other African nations.

"Is it Embarrassing? Yes," he said. "Disastrous? No."