Banjo Paterson keeps his place on hi-tech new $10 banknote

The Reserve Bank of Australia is gearing up to roll out a new-look $10 bill next week as it continues to fight counterfeit banknotes.

Reserve Bank assistant governor Lindsay Boulton launches the new $10 note in Sydney yesterday. Picture: John Feder

The Reserve Bank of Australia is gearing up to roll out a new-look $10 bill next week as it continues to fight counterfeit banknotes.

The RBA will put 200 million new $10 notes into circulation from Wednesday. It follows last year’s release of the $5 note and is part of a 10-year program of work, at a cost of $37 million, to improve the security features of Australia’s banknotes.

The new $10 note.

The new bill has a number of anti-counterfeiting features, including a top-to-bottom clear window and images that change colour when the note is tilted. It also has a tactile element to help the vision-impaired identify the note. The faces of writer Dame Mary Gilmore and bush poet AB “Banjo” Paterson have been retained on the new notes, while the sulphur-crested cockatoo and bramble wattle are new additions.

The old $10 notes will ultimately make their way through a recycling process into various items, including plastic furniture.

Counterfeiting rates of banknotes are low by international standards, with about 17 fake notes per million in circulation, but advances in technology mean the RBA isn’t taking any chances.

“The technology available to counterfeiters is increasing all the time so their ability to replicate notes, even though Australian banknotes are quite secure, is increasing. In order to stay ahead, it’s important to refresh our notes and upgrade our features from time to time,” Reserve Bank assistant governor Lindsay Boulton told The Australian.

Last year’s release of the $5 note was hampered when vending machines and other payment devices, including self-serve checkouts, refused to accept it.

Mr Boulton said about 90,000 of the new $10 bills had been made available to manufacturers and operators of ATMs, vending machines, pokies and other machines, but it was a decision for each business as to whether they made necessary changes. The next in the series to be released will be the new $50 note, around this time next year.