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Currency News
January 2006 - New Singapore $2 Polymer Banknote Issue
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued a new series of $2 polymer banknotes. The design is
generally similar to the current portrait series in paper. The new notes bear the signature of
Mr Goh Chok Tong, ex Prime Minister and current Senior Minister and Chairman of the Monetary Authority
of Singapore. Prefixes start with 2AA - a continuation from the 2 earlier series
that started with 0AA and 1AA.
March 2005 - MAS Releases New Statistics of Notes Printed
The
Monetary Authority of Singapore has released new statistics for the number of banknotes printed as at 31
December 2004. Comparison of these with the old figures as at 31 March 2003 reveals interesting
numbers about the print sizes of the new MAS Lee Hsien Loong signature combinations of the $2, $5, $10 and
$50 President Yusof Ishak
Portrait Series currency notes. We have updated our tables accordingly. The statistics for Orchid, Bird
and Ship notes remain the same. The old statistics are no longer on the MAS website.
August 2004 - MAS Announces new Banknote Issues
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has announced new banknote issues bearing the name of MAS. They will carry
the signature of Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Chairman MAS. The new $50 and $5 will be released first, followed by the
$2 and $10 in January 2005. With this announcement, it must mean that the $50 notes with Mr Lee's signature as
Chairman, BCCS will indeed be a very small issue. In fact, hardly any has been spotted in circulation. With these
new issues, 2004 is turning out to be a very interesting year for Singapore banknote collectors.
May 2004 - MAS Issues New $10 Polymer Banknotes
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has announced the issue of a new $10 polymer banknote. It is understood that
this is a trial issue of about 10m notes. There will also be 10,000 commemorative notes issued to remember this
occasion by. The issue price for the commemorative notes is S$35. Circulation notes can be obtained from selected
automated teller machines. It appears from the notes available that the serial number prefixes start from 0AA,
followed by 1AA, 2AA and so on, then repeats 0AB, 1AB and apparently ends with 2AB. But this means a print run of
13m. Mavin understands that this is because there will not be replacement notes for defective prints, which will
simply be removed. Guess that explains the gaps in serial numbers even when the new notes are obtained from
the bank. Another interesting development is that there will not be a serial no. 1000000. The last number of
each prefix series is 999999.
January 2004 - Replacement Notes?
Some Singapore banknote collectors will by now have come across $50 President series notes signed by Dr Hu Tsu Tau but
with serial numbers beginning with 1JJ. The problem is that notes with the new Mr Lee Hsien Loong signatures start
with prefixes 1HL. So the question most have been asking is are the 1JJ notes replacement notes, much like the famous
"Z" series? The answer in short is: "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Are there other replacement notes out there? Of course there are because notes will continue to be spoilt during printing,
but they are not saying which prefixes they are. Time to go through your new banknote bundles to find out?
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