Video Transcript
Australian polymer banknotes are packed with features to help safeguard individuals and businesses against counterfeiting. Australia has two series of circulating banknotes. The newer banknotes shown here for higher dominations have a clear top to bottom window whereas the older series does not.
Here are just two quick way quick ways that you can check any banknote new or old series, whatever the denomination. First is feel, run your fingers across it. It should be a smooth piece of plastic but a little rougher on the dark ink.
A second check is in the corner window on the lower side. If you hold that up to the light, you'll see a hidden image. These are just two quick ways to check if your notes are genuine.
There are many other more specific features and I'll give another example with the $50 denomination.
For the newer series of banknotes, look to the top corner and tilt the banknote. You'll see a rolling bar of colour. For the older series of banknotes, look for a small circle with diamonds. Hold that up to the light and you'll see a seven pointed star.
To recap for all Australian banknotes, you can do a quick check with the feel by looking for a hidden image in the bottom corner window. You can also look for individual features which vary with the newer or older series of banknote, like the rolling bar effect or diamonds to star transformation.
But that’s just the start but there's plenty more features than these, including microtext and serial numbers that light up under UV light. That’s great if you are handling cash in a nighttime venue.
If you handle a lot of cash or you just want to be more confident with the banknotes that you're handling. Please see www.rba.gov.au/counterfeiting for more ways to check that your banknotes are genuine.
