Banknotes of the Australian dollar

The banknotes of the Australian dollar were first issued by the Reserve Bank of Australia on 14 February 1966, when Australia adopted decimal currency. The $5 note was not issued until May 1967.

Original series (papernote)

The $1 (£ .50), $2 (£1), $10 (£5), and $20 (£10) had exact exchange rates with pounds and were a similar colour to the notes they replaced, but the $5 (£2/10) did not, and so was introduced after the public had become familiar with decimal currency. Notes issued between 1966 and 1973 bore the title "Commonwealth of Australia". Starting from 1974, the title on the new notes only read "Australia" and the legal tender phrase was also changed from "Legal Tender throughout the Commonwealth of Australia and the territories of the Commonwealth" to "This Australian Note is legal tender throughout Australia and its territories". The $50 note was introduced in 1973 and the $100 note in 1984, in response to inflation requiring larger denominations for transactions. The one dollar note was replaced by a coin in 1984, while the two dollar note was replaced by a smaller coin in 1988. Although no longer printed, all previous issues of Australian dollar banknotes are considered legal tender.

Paper Series
Image		Value	Dimensions	colours	Description		Date of circulation
Front	Back				Front	Back
		$1	140 × 70 mm	Brown and orange	Queen Elizabeth II	David Malangi (artwork)	1966-1984
		$2	145 × 72.5 mm	Green and yellow	John Macarthur	William Farrer	1966-1988
		$5	150 × 75 mm	Mauve	Sir Joseph Banks	Caroline Chisholm	1967-1992
		$10	155 × 77.5 mm	Blue and orange	Francis Greenway	Henry Lawson	1966-1993
		$20	160 × 80 mm	Red and yellow (orange backset)	Sir Charles Kingsford Smith	Lawrence Hargrave	1966-1994
		$50	165 × 82.5 mm	Gold, blue, brown and green	Howard Florey, Baron Florey	Sir Ian Clunies Ross	1973-1995
		$100	172 × 82.5 mm	Light blue and grey	Sir Douglas Mawson	John Tebbutt	1984-1996
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

Current series (polymer)

In 1988, the Reserve Bank of Australia issued plastic, specifically polypropylene polymer banknotes (which were produced by Note Printing Australia), to commemorate the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia. These notes contained a transparent "window" with a diffractive optically variable device (DOVD) image of Captain James Cook as a security feature. Australian banknotes were the first in the world to use such features. All current Australian banknotes also contain Microprinting for further security.

First series (1988)

There were initial difficulties with the first banknote issued; the $10 note (pictured above) had problems with the holographic security feature detaching from the note. However, the Reserve Bank saw potential in the issue of plastic banknotes and commenced preparations for an entirely new series made from polymer, commencing with the $5 note in 1992. In April 1995, the design of the $5 note was updated to match the rest of the New Note Series, with additional slight changes in 1996. In 2001, a special commemorative 'Federation' $5 note was produced, but in 2002, the previous version's production commenced again.

From 2002, the design of all notes (except for the $5 note picturing the Queen) was slightly changed to include the names of the people pictured on them under the portraits, and swapping the order of the signatures of officials on the notes.

Today all Australian notes are made of polymer.

Second series (1992–present)

Note	Obverse design	Reverse design	Dimensions4 (mm)	Weight4 (g)	Main colour	Window image	Embossing5	Printed	Issued
$5 original1	Queen Elizabeth II	Parliament House, Old Parliament House	130 × 65 × 0.1130	0.764	Pale mauve	Gum flower	N/A	1992–1993	7 Jul 1992
$5 recoloured	Queen Elizabeth II	Parliament House, Old Parliament House	130 × 65 × 0.1256	0.783	Violet, pink			Currently printing	24 Apr 1995
$5 Federation2	Sir Henry Parkes	Catherine Helen Spence	130 × 65 × 0.1259	0.815		Leaf shaped window	"5"	2001	1 Jan 2001
$103	Banjo Paterson	Dame Mary Gilmore	137 × 65 × 0.1294	0.841	Blue	Windmill	Wavy lines	Currently printing	1 Nov 1993
$20	Mary Reibey	Reverend John Flynn	144 × 65 × 0.1332	0.900	Red	Compass	"20"	Currently printing	31 Oct 1994
$50	David Unaipon	Edith Cowan	151 × 65 × 0.1400	0.955	Yellow	Southern Cross	"50"	Currently printing	4 Oct 1995
$100	Dame Nellie Melba	Sir John Monash	158 × 65 × 0.1408	1.006	Green	Lyrebird	"100"	Currently printing	15 May 1996
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.
Remarks Some members of the public had difficulties in differentiating between the $5.00 and $10.00 notes especially in poor light conditions. Commemorating the Centenary of Federation. It also features the text of the speech Henry Parkes gave to parliament in favour of federation in microprint, on the side featuring his face. This note features excerpts of text from Banjo Paterson's most famous poem The Man From Snowy River intertwined with the text "TEN DOLLARS" in microprint on the front, and the text of Mary Gilmore's patriotic poem No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest on the reverse. Thickness and weight of notes is +/-5 percent per 1000 notes Embossing is inside the shiny, transparent window.

Tactile feature

On 13 February 2015 the Reserve Bank of Australia announced that the next series of Australia notes would have a tactile feature to help the vision-impaired community to tell the value of the note.

See also

• List of people who have appeared on Australian currency
• Coins of Australia

External links

1. Australian Decimal Banknotes
2. The Money Tracker site allows users to track Australian banknotes as they circulate around Australia.
3. The Reserve Bank of Australia has a full timeline [1] of Australian banknotes.