Maximum oversatuartion...

[Kym]

http://www.news.com.au/money/money-m...#ixzz27l9d3orQ

THE Reserve Bank of Australia has been working on creating new, "youthful"-looking bank notes for the past five years, it's been reported.

The project, called Next Generation Bank Note, is more than two years behind schedule and has so far cost $9.3 million, The Australian reports.

Designers have been supplied with new portraits of the notes' subjects and asked to capture Australian characteristics with "youthful" and "energetic design qualities", it says.

My tax dollars wasted on something we don't need? How childish are these new notes ... $9 mill down the drain

http://resources.news.com.au/files/2...--100-note.jpg
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2...0--50-note.jpg
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2...8--20-note.jpg
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2...0--10-note.jpg
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2...20--5-note.jpg

[Cage]

The $5 note makes me want to throw-up.

Gawd, it looks more like Monopoly Money than Legal Tender.

[ricktas]

What got me was that the decided to update them cause research showed most people could not name the people on the notes.

I wonder if making them bright and shiny will change that? My guess is that if they introduce them and 3 years later do research, most people will still not be able to name the people on the notes. I look in my wallet and go, Oh I have got $10, not Oh I have got a note with Banjo Paterson and Mary Gilmore on it.

[arthurking83]

for me the problem lies with the portrait subjects .. not so much the colours.\

If the brief is for youthful and energetic, then by all means replace the queen on the fiver, but not with another stuffy old fart from a thousand years ago!!

How about photos of prince Harry playing pool in Vegas .... or princess Kate, on a beach!

now that's youthful and energetic!??


bloody RBA ponces in their elevated ivory towers! ... no bloody idea!

[I @ M]

If the brief is for youthful and energetic, then by all means replace the queen on the fiver, but not with another stuffy old fart from a thousand years ago!!!

Pffft, I still boycott the $5.00 note since they removed the image of one of my relatives from it a few years ago.

Maybe there is more to it than just pretty colours and designs, I see the obvious omissions from the names of John Monash and Mary Gilmore of Sir and Dame. Maybe this is the re republic roll out of the new currency? Once full republic status is reached they can easily swap the people on the notes with something more Australian such as bald eagles and grizzly bears.

[old dog]

ah...they must be catering for the local indigenous people and the soon to be muslim indigenous people...methinks..

[arthurking83]

Those pre release bank note look as though Ken Rockwell has had a major influence in their designs!
(probably shot on the D4 in jpg mode with Vivid Picture Control, and the saturation, hue, contrast and sharpening levels maxed out!



either way, I reckon stuff it all and just invent some new phone app for it.

Instead of having all this plastic money weighing you down, just the single app on the smart phone, some photo app called iCash or Snapcash or something stupid like that, and make up your own currency designs.

RBA will provide a template for the denomination, and you just add whatever artful flight of fancy tickles your senses at any particular time.

so for example, I'm about to purchase a few grands worth of camera and lens, so I open up my phone, load the RBA template and snap a quick image of something. Maybe the salesperson and myself smiling and shaking hands on the deal .. maybe the camera and lens I'm about to purchase.
The app then creates a $4500 version of that denomination, I show it to the shop's salesperson and he agrees it looks good and I beam it to his cloud based wireless cash converter generator.

Saves the mint ... a mint in printing costs, and I don't have to carry around a few grands worth of cash ever again!
(coz of course I'm always burdened with the weight of a few grands worth of cash in my pockets!!)

[ameerat42]

I reckon the extra saturation it'll drive up inflation

This will be extended through the butterfly effect, and before long what'll we have? - Another global chromatic aberration!

Has nothing been learnt from the Great Depression? And then they only had (mostly) greenbacks.

[ving]

the voice of reason might ask $9 million would feed how many families in a 3rd world counrty?

[I @ M]

the voice of reason might ask $9 million would feed how many families in a 3rd world counrty?

I hear you as a lone voice promoting reality against a government and public service bureaucracy consumed with wallowing in self satisfying levels of gross excess.

[Bennymiata]

I think you'll find that the bright colours are there as an extra security measure, as most home printers won't print colours quite as bright as these.
They say they've spent a lot on improving the security of the new notes, which is where some of that $9M must have gone too.

There has been a lot of money forgery going on, and as printers and computers get better and better, the Reserve Bank always has to keep at least one step ahead.
A few years ago, a bikie gang house was raided, and they found around 50,000 well forged $50 notes there just about to go into circulation, so they have to make notes as difficult to forge as possible.

The Secret Service in the USA was initially set up to catch forgeries, and yet, the US doesn't seem to do all that much to stop them in the design of their notes, as they still look and feel exactly the same as they have for 100 years or so, even though they have stepped up various security measures on them, although it's hard to tell without a black light and some other equipment.
At least our notes, with their clear windows in them make them far more difficult to copy.

[Kym]

Modern home printers can do any colour. So the colour argument is a bit thin.
The design is horrible! You can add new security to existing (or better) designs.

Also: What is (A)(US)(TR)(A)(LIA) ? -- that is so pathetic.

[Ezookiel]

They missed their brief totally in regards to making them youthful and helping people identify the people on them. To do that they'd have needed to replace the people with people of much newer fame. But apart from that I actually like them. But maybe I'm more youthful than the people commenting here so actually like them more ;P
Of course, the amount spent to create them is ludicrous and pretty much inexcusable considering almost anyone with a bit of graphic design software could have done the job for about a hundredthousandth of that price. In today's economy that amount of money for something as basic as coming up with some graphic design images for a banknote is totally unreasonable.

[JM Tran]

I like them, do not mind a fresh change at all.

But do not see how it cost them so much money to come up with this? Oh well.

For anyone here that travels extensively, many locals and tourists around the world love the Australian currency notes - its very distinguishable to tell how much is what notes by the colours, and being made out of plastic with protection makes it harder to forge (but not impossible, just a lot harder). You can even use Aussie notes in Vietnam now instead of US notes and they love it there - harder to get damaged ie. rain. I have ruined quite a few US notes too from getting it too wet etc.

[RedL]

the 9 mil is chicken feed, the new colour cash tax will cove it 10 fold

Why not make them
$110
$55
$22
$11
$5.50
notes, have the GST built in, now that is the logic I expect

[arthurking83]

They missed their brief totally in regards to making them youthful and helping people identify the people on them. To do that they'd have needed to replace the people with people of much newer fame...........

I'm thinking Big Brother contestants ... or the last winner of Australia's got Talent .. umm what or who else?


I reckon people will remember Craig Thompson for years to come!

How about Alan Bond! .... legend!!
(Can't do Christopher Skase .. he's probably on the Spanish currency!)

How about the cute girl behind the counter at the servo in Bendigo tonight!!

Yep! newer more recognisable faces I reckon too! .. oh! and make them good looking too.

All this talk of hungry third worldians and chicken feed .. got me all hungry now .. I'm going to dive into a box of Dixie Drumstix I reckon!

hmmm .. would $9 mil worth of Dixie Drumstix and Arnott's Cheese and Bacon shapes feed these third world folks? We could all stay up late and watch the F1 and polish off a few million boxes of 'em(well I know I could).

[RedL]

how about a new face every year, may be the Australian of the year, sports man of the year, volunteer of the year...
It would be great recognition for todays people

[arthurking83]

how about a new face every year, may be the Australian of the year, sports man of the year, volunteer of the year...
.....

Nah! that's too old fartish!! .. something more practical I reckon.

best comedian at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, or winner of the Bridman rally(even tho it no longer exists as an event!) .. how about the national lawn bowls champ or similarly obscure sporting champ.
Given them some national coverage and spread the love around.
How about Australia's most wanted, or other badass criminal that we all need to keep a lookout for.
At least this way the money is working for them too .. saves on the expense of those Channel 9 spots about the latest criminal we're supposed to be on the watch for.

If yer going to vary the images on them often, then it should be on a practical level too.

[RedL]

Nah! that's too old fartish!! .. something more practical I reckon.

How about Australia's most wanted, or other badass criminal that we all need to keep a lookout for.

hahaha... I like your thinking

[Cage]

Those pre release bank note look as though Ken Rockwell has had a major influence in their designs!
(probably shot on the D4 in jpg mode with Vivid Picture Control, and the saturation, hue, contrast and sharpening levels maxed out!

Maybe they should have got Ken Done instead.