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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the three note-issuing banks (Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited) today (November 24) announced that the new series of HK$1,000 banknotes would be put into circulation from December 7.
The new HK$1,000 banknotes will be available for exchange at the three note-issuing banks starting from December 7. New notes for the other four denominations of HK$500, HK$100, HK$50 and HK$20 will go into circulation in 2011 and 2012. Together with the new series, all other banknotes currently in circulation will continue to be legal tender.
The new banknotes have incorporated state-of-the-art security features, the locations of which will be the same across all five denominations. The five key features are:
* Dynamic Colour-changing Pattern - colour shifting between green and gold with a shimmering horizontal bar seen to be rolling up and down when the note is tilted
* Colour-changing Windowed Metallic Thread - colour shifting between magenta and green and the "H" and "K" on the thread are made up of microtext
* Standardised Enhanced Watermark - comprising a multi-tonal watermark of a bauhinia flower and highlight watermark of the denomination numeral and dot pattern, a standardised design for the three note-issuing banks
* Fluorescent See-through Pattern - perfect registration of the patterns on the front and back, with two fluorescent colours visible under ultraviolet light
* Fluorescent Serial Number - the vertical serial number is fluorescent red under ultraviolet light
Leaflets illustrating the security features of the new banknotes are available to the public at branches of the three note-issuing banks and the HKMA. The information is also available on the HKMA website at www.hkma.gov.hk.
Ends/Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Issued at HKT 11:26
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