Polymer Countries

How many countries have adopted the polymer banknote type? I know that Australia was the first one, Canada, Singapore, UK and UAE have too. How many others have or planning to make the initiative?

Those are all available in the Numista catalogue:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=&ct=banknote&cat=y&ca=931&m=67

My home country, Brazil, issued one single commemorative issue in polymer; it was not well-received and there are currently no plans of issuing more banknotes in the material.

Wow, that's a lot of them there, thanks dude!

Romania issued on the occasion of the Total Eclipse of the Sun (11 August 1999) the 2,000 Lei note, the first polymer-based note in Europe and in the northern hemisphere.

thegamesbond

 

How many countries have adopted the polymer banknote type? I know that Australia was the first one, Canada, Singapore, UK and UAE have too. How many others have or planning to make the initiative?

If you are talking about countries that fully adopted polymer for its current series:

Brunei

Eastern Caribbean States

Jamaica (their new polymer sets are waiting to be released)

Maldives

Mauritania

Papua New Guinea

Romania

Trinidad & Tobago

Vanuatu
Vietnam (except for the surviving small changes notes)

My country (Indonesia) used to have polymer notes but since it caused confusion among the people (people ironed it when they accidentally washed it) they decided to switch back to paper. I kinda hate that decision but I think even the government has no choice since most of the people here treat banknotes like a caveman so using paper is much cheaper.

 

If you are talking about countries that fully adopted polymer for its current series:

 

Brunei

Eastern Caribbean States

Jamaica (their new polymer sets are waiting to be released)

Maldives

Mauritania

Papua New Guinea

Romania

Trinidad & Tobago

Vanuatu
Vietnam (except for the surviving small changes notes)

 

My country (Indonesia) used to have polymer notes but since it caused confusion among the people (people ironed it when they accidentally washed it) they decided to switch back to paper. I kinda hate that decision but I think even the government has no choice since most of the people here treat banknotes like a caveman so using paper is much cheaper.

You miss out the most importance country - Australia, not to mention the kiwi too.

Here is the full list of countries that have issued polymer notes as normal circulating type, and commemorative, and few countries have full converted to polymer.

| 1988 | australia (full)

| 1990 | singapore (3 notes)

| 1991 | western samoa | papua new guinea (full)

| 1993 | kuwait | indonesia 

| 1996 | brunei (full) | thailand 

| 1998 | sri lanka | malaysia 

| 1999 | new zealand (full) | romania (full) | northern ireland - northern bank ltd | taiwan 

| 2000 | bangladesh | brazil | china 

| 2001 | vietnam (almost full) | solomon islands 

| 2002 | mexico | nepal 

| 2003 | zambia 

| 2004 | chile 

| 2006 | nigeria 

| 2007 | hong kong | guatemala 

| 2008 | israel 

| 2009 | nicaragua | paraguay 

| 2010 | honduras | dominican republic | vanuatu (full)

| 2011 | costa rica | mozambique | canada (full)

| 2012 | fiji 

| 2013 | mauritius | lebanon 

| 2014 | poland | mauritania | trinidad and tobago (full) | cape verde 

| 2015 | gambia | scotland - clydesdale bank plc | maldives (full)

| 2016 | great britain (full) | scotland - bank of scotland | scotland - the royal bank of scotland | haiti 

| 2017 | gibraltar 

| 2018 | sao tome & principe | botswana | macedonia | russia | uruguay 

| 2019 | northern ireland ulster bank | northern ireland danske bank | northern ireland bank of ireland | east caribbean states (full) | albania | morocco 

| 2020 | namibia | angola | saudi arabia

 | 2021 | cook islands | united arab emirates

| 2022 | guyana | philippines | egypt | barabdos (full)

| 2023 | jamaica (full to be)

ahkai

 

If you are talking about countries that fully adopted polymer for its current series:

 

Brunei

Eastern Caribbean States

Jamaica (their new polymer sets are waiting to be released)

Maldives

Mauritania

Papua New Guinea

Romania

Trinidad & Tobago

Vanuatu
Vietnam (except for the surviving small changes notes)

 

My country (Indonesia) used to have polymer notes but since it caused confusion among the people (people ironed it when they accidentally washed it) they decided to switch back to paper. I kinda hate that decision but I think even the government has no choice since most of the people here treat banknotes like a caveman so using paper is much cheaper.

You miss out the most importance country - Australia, not to mention the kiwi too.

The OP had mentioned Australia so I didn't mention it, but I did forget about NZ haha

griff88

 

 

The OP had mentioned Australia so I didn't mention it, but I did forget about NZ haha

That's okay. I was just having fun here 🤣

The countries that first issued polymer notes were Haiti, Costa Rica, and Isle of Man.  They still issued paper denominations but their polymer notes predated those of Australia.

Oklahoman

The countries that first issued polymer notes were Haiti, Costa Rica, and Isle of Man.  They still issued paper denominations but their polymer notes predated those of Australia.

Those are made from Tyvek - which is used in the building industry.

The one from the Isle of Man is called the ‘Plastic Pound’ & is uniquely a green colour.

Yes, I do have one in my collection.

All other Manx 1 Pound notes since 1961 have been a purple colour.

Aidan.

Tyvek is a polymer.

Oklahoman

Tyvek is a polymer.

Here is more information about Tyvek;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyvek .

Kai has listed the Manx 1 Pound here;

https://web.archive.org/web/20060130232054/http://au.geocities.com/kai_oceania/isleofman38.htm .

Aidan.

Thanks for confirming its a polymer. 

Oklahoman

Thanks for confirming its a polymer. 

It is actually a high-density polyethylene - used in making bottles & piping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-density_polyethylene .

Aidan.

Polyethylene is a polymer… Struggling to tell if you are being thick on purpose… you even linked to an IOM banknote page that was on a polymer banknote site…which the IOM note is on because it is a polymer…

New Zealand went Polymer in 1999

First series of Polymer (Series 6 of NZ cash)

$20 May 1999, $50 and $100 - Aug 1999, $5 Sep 1999, $10 Dec 1999

Special $10 millennium note - Red Seal collector notes Oct 1999, Black seal general release Aug 2000

Series 7 (2nd polymer notes)

$5 and $10 notes issued in Aug 2015, $20 to $100 issued July 2016

All printed in Australia.

Series 6 have nearly been supplanted by the modern notes, but you still see a few $20s and a lot of the $50s and $100s around, all are still legal tender. I even get the occasional Series 5 (Paper) ones out every now and then.

My complete collection of NZ annual sets issued from 1999 to 2016. Only 9 annual sets were issued - 1999 to 2004 (6); 2007, 2008, and 2016.

Sadly to say that not all sets were sold for the 2000 to 2003 sets, and those unsold sets were later destroyed by the bank. Only 291 sets were sold for the 2002 sets.

Enjoy!

All of those sets are very rare now. They sell for around $800 - $1200 per set on Trade Me. One listing at the moment has 8 sets from 1999 to 2008 for sale at $10k or near that figure.

The sets were poorly promoted and generally sold way above face value (Around $600 a set for $185 worth of notes) and thus only a few very well off people brought them.

Because notes were not issued every year in New Zealand (And they still aren't) many of those sets were unique for note issuing in those years.

For general circulation - notes were only issued for

1999 - all notes issued  and 2000 had millenium $10s, then nothing until 2002

Notes issued from 2002 onwards shown below

$5 - 2003, 4, 5, 6, 9, 14 - Series 7 - 2015 and possibly a few in 2018

$10 - 2002, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13 and Series 7 - 2015 only

$20 - 2002, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 14, Series 7, 2016, 18, 22

$50 - 2004, 5, 7, 12, 14 Series 7, 2016, 18, 21 (Only $20 and $50 have been issued in much quantity in  series 7)

$100 - 2005, 6, 8 Series 7 - 2016, 18 Rumoured, but none seen so far

These annual sets were not over priced at that time and it was in line with those selling in Australia for their annual sets too. If you look at the 1999 set, it only cost you a premium of $55 and $60 for the 2000 sets with 6 notes. If you look at the 2002 and 2003, less than a third were sold.
 

1999 - 1000 sets limited edition, only 746 sets sold at NZ$240 per set;

2000 - 1000 sets limited edition, only 817 sets sold at NZ$255 per set;

2001 - 1000 sets limited edition, only 491 sets sold at NZ$250 per set; 

2002 - 1000 sets limited edition, only 291 sets sold at NZ$270 per set;

2003 - 1000 sets limited edition, only 273 sets sold at NZ$270 per set;

2004 - 1000* sets limited edition, all sold out at NZ$295 per set;

2007 - 1000* sets limited edition, all sold out at NZ$295 per set;

2008 - 1000* sets limited edition, all sold out at NZ$295 per set; and

2016 - 1000 sets limited edition 7th series, all sold out at record time at NZ$295 per set.

I remembered back in the early 2000s that I can get a list of what sets were still available for purchase too.

However, I do agree with you that it was not that well promoted and as such so many sets were not sold. The 2015/2016 sets were all sold out within a few weeks, and same as the 2007 and 2008 sets too. In Australia, the story was a bit different. There were just too many numismatic products issued that somehow, many collectors just find it hard to get them all. However, I do not believe that any unsold Australia sets were destroyed, and I believe that they may have been pushed to dealers at a discounted price.

Moneytane

New Zealand went Polymer in 1999

 

First series of Polymer (Series 6 of NZ cash)

$20 May 1999, $50 and $100 - Aug 1999, $5 Sep 1999, $10 Dec 1999

 

Special $10 millennium note - Red Seal collector notes Oct 1999, Black seal general release Aug 2000

 

 

Series 7 (2nd polymer notes)

 

 

 

$5 and $10 notes issued in Aug 2015, $20 to $100 issued July 2016

 

All printed in Australia.

 

Series 6 have nearly been supplanted by the modern notes, but you still see a few $20s and a lot of the $50s and $100s around, all are still legal tender. I even get the occasional Series 5 (Paper) ones out every now and then.

Series 7 are printed in Canada, not Australia.

Aidan.

BCNumismatics

 

 

Series 7 are printed in Canada, not Australia.

 

Aidan.

Thank you Aidan

Tane