Ty vek or not ty vek? Is that the issue?

By Trevor Wilkin

In a few short years Australians are accustomed to plastic or polymer bank notes such that to come across an "old" paper note in change is an oddity and cause for comment. The story of plastic bank notes however is much longer and although the Australia's approach has received international recognition, it was by no means the first.

Australia's focus on "a better bank note" goes back to 1967, the early days of decimal currency when the $10 was heavily counterfeited. The CSIRO (as it was then) and the Reserve Bank combined their energies to develop that "better bank note" at least from a security perspective. The end result was the $10 Bicentenary Commemorative issued in 1988 and of course now Australia's entire range of polymer notes. By all reports, or at least from the lack of them, counterfeiting has declined since the introduction of polymer notes and these initial objectives have been largely achieved.

As a consequence of the $10 Bicentenary, Note Printing Australia (NPA) was able to market its polymer technology to a number of countries. It is probably fair to say that some resistance was met particularly when Australia was still using paper notes and not all public comment on polymer was favorable. Its efforts were perhaps easier once Australia fully converted. NPA has certainly met with some success and there are now 14 countries having issued, continuing to issue or have announced an issue of polymer bank notes. Most are in the Asia-Pacific region and that is no coincidence as these days Governments tend to demonstrate a preference for printers to be geographically convenient if that is practical to minimize the security risks of shipment. A recent joint venture, Securency, with a European based multinational may broaden the market base.

However, as is often the case, someone has been there before. In the early 1980s the American Bank Note Company (ABNC) with the assistance of the DuPont Group experimented with the plastic bank note concept. DuPont produces a plastic called Tyvek® which, at the time, one of its many uses was to make straps to hold bundles of notes together.

Two of the Governments took up ABNC on their offer—Costa Rica and Haiti. Perhaps spurred by the success, Bradbury Wilkinson which at that time was an ABNC subsidiary, secured a contract from the Isle of Man Government. In this case, Tyvek® became known as Bradvek which suggests that it was produced under license by Bradbury Wilkinson in the United Kingdom.

Costa Rica and the Isle of Man restricted their involvement to a single denomination each—the 20 Colones for the former and the L1 for the latter. Haiti was more adventurous, ordering notes of 1, 2, 50, 100, 250 and 500 Gourdes (Pick 230b, 231b, 235b, and c, 236b, P237, and P238). Only the 5 Gourdes was not issued in plastic. Costa Rica (Pick 252) is dated 28 June 1983. Haiti is undated but all indications are that it was issued in 1983. P237 and 238, or the 250 and 500 Gourdes of this Haiti issue, were only in plastic and although similar to those denominations of an earlier issue, some plate changes would have been necessary. The Isle of Man (Pick 39) is recorded in contemporary numismatic publications as being issued in 1983. The 1, 100, 250 and 500 Gourdes of Haiti are quite scarce, seldomly appearing on dealers lists (a small group appeared on the market in 1996 and were quickly snapped up); the others tend to be available with some effort.

These issues are the same design as their paper counterparts but if one knows the signs, it is easy to distinguish between them. Costa Rica's plastic has a Z prefix as well as a defined date; Haiti's paper notes are printed on paper with coloured planchettes (small randomly dispersed red and blue dots). Their plastic notes also have discreet serial prefixes though more research is required to compile an exhaustive list for each denomination. One version of the 50 Gourdes has the ABNC logo—the bald eagle—as a "watermark" and another is without the eagle. Perhaps there were political overtones because of similarity with the eagle symbol of the USA; perhaps it was simply the Tyvek® sheets that were used in different print runs. The Isle of Man L1 has prefixes M, N, and P and 2,500,000 were ordered ending with serial number P500,000.

They had a relatively short life. It is understood that the tropical climate had a devastating effect upon the printing on Tyvek®. As the notes circulated, the ink "smudged" and the notes became unusable. The Costa Rica and Haiti notes were withdrawn and quickly replaced by their paper counterparts. Haiti was soon to issue a new design using several different printers rather than ABNC only. For the Isle of Man, its L1 attracted a lot of criticism through the difficulty of handling (much as our notes did when we were handling a mix of paper and plastic). It was finally withdrawn in 1988 (coincidently at the time Australia's first polymer was issued) shortly after Bradbury Wilkinson was acquired by Thomas de la Rue & Co from ABNC and it is understood that its licensing rights consequently expired.

Normally we could rule off the ledger here and conclude by saying "such is the story of plastic bank notes as it is today". However in recent years some of the trial bank notes produced by the ABNC have entered the market. They first came to my attention in 1997 when several lots were auctioned by Spink in London. In appearance they have the characteristics of unissued notes although there are variations. Some are signed, others are not; some have zero serial numbers, others are without numbers altogether; some are punch cancelled and some have a "Specimen" overprint.

All are replicas of current paper issues of the particular country. To date eight notes have been traced. A 10 and 100 Sucres (like Pick 115 and 118) of Ecuador, a 5 and 10 Colones (like Pick 139 and 128) of El Salvador, a 10 Lempiras (like Pick 64) of Honduras, a 10 and 20 Bolivares (like Pick 57 and 53) of Venezuela and lastly a 100 Colones (like P248) issue of Costa Rica. The latter is the only one which I have not been able to acquire although I have seen only two or three of others, particularly the Honduras and Venezuela 20 Bolivares. Trials and specimens of the issued plastics of Costa Rica and Haiti have also been spotted—once again the 250 and 500 Guardes are unsighted. Most are Extremely Fine to Uncirculated condition although for some it is evident that their strength and durability has been tested as attempts to tear them and repeated folding is evident.

It seems that ABNC commenced printing sometime after June 1980 as the El Salvador 5 Colones trial is dated 19 June 1980. A further clue to timing is that the Venezuela 10 Bolivares (P57) was initially issued as a paper note dated 29 January 1980, but was modified in many small ways, most notably the portrait of De Sucre, being re-issued as P60 on 6 October 1981. ABNC modelled their trial on the earlier Pick 57 version.

Numbers produced may never be known. It is perhaps a matter of one or two sheets of each denomination but that is purely conjecture. From investigations in Europe and the United States of America, known trial pieces warrant a rarity rating. Enquiries of the ABNC do not provide any meaningful response; there may have been trials produced for other countries but they are unable to confirm. No doubt if one had the time and the ability to peruse ABNC's records of the day, then much more information may become available. Although after almost 20 years some of these records may have been destroyed as ABNC has been through mergers and acquisitions and does not retain the singular identity it once had.

There are many unknowns and there will always be an element of speculation but the basic facts speak for themselves. Both the trial notes and the issued Tyvek® items will become increasingly sought after as more countries adopt NPA's polymer technology as these pieces are the vanguard of plastic notes.

There are ongoing developments in the polymer note issue. Thailand has purchased the technology (including the polymer sheets) from NPA to produce the 1997 regular 50 Baht polymer under licence in its own printing facilities. Press reports advise that both Canada and the United States of America are examining plastic as a medium to replace existing cotton based paper; Australia's polymer process is being reviewed. New Zealand is converting to polymer with the $5, $10, $20 and $100 already out and with the $50 due early 2000. All notes use the current paper design as a basis. It will also issue a special $10 circulating polymer to commemorate the millennium year, well 2000 at least, and this is now available as a packaged note with the circulated version due for release in early 2000. Romania has issued a 2000 Lei note commemorating the August 1999 Northern Hemisphere eclipse of the sun and Taiwan in June this year released a $50 polymer commemorating 50th Anniversary of its note issue. On June 28, 1999, Papua New Guinea released a Kina 50 polymer regular issue based on its paper Kina 50 (also produced by NPA).

Brazil will be issuing a 10 Real Polymer commemorating the 500th anniversary of European Settlement in April 2000 as a trial for possible full conversion. It will acquire the technology from NPA and manufacturer under license this issue in its own printing facilities. Australia will be issuing a polymer $5 commemorative for its centenary of federation in 2001.

My spies tell me that many other countries are considering a polymer issue and there are some currently under production. New Zealand's conversion has given a boost to the technology and it is understood that other Pacific countries are amongst those seriously considering the change. This is obviously dynamic and this article may well be outdated by the time you read it as new issues are announced.

Plastic bank notes will be with us for some considerable time, probably until the next leap forward in technology, wherever that may take us.

Trevor Wilkin carries all the NPA issues and most of the ABNC notes including some of the trial pieces. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 182, NSW 2062, Australia. Telefax: ++61-2-9438-5040. E-mail: trevorsnotes@bigpond.com.

References: Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues, 3rd Edition. Various issues of the Reserve Bank of Australia staff magazine.