The Bank has today released images of the new $5 banknote that will be issued into circulation from 1 September 2016. The images show the basic design artwork of each side of the banknote. As previously announced, key aspects of the existing design – colour, size and people portrayed – are retained for ease of recognition and to minimise the disruption to businesses. There is a new ‘tactile’ feature to help the vision-impaired community distinguish between different denominations of banknotes.

The Governor, Glenn Stevens, said:

‘Innovative new security features have been incorporated to help keep Australia's banknotes secure from counterfeiting into the future. As can be seen in the images, these include a distinctive top-to-bottom window. Each banknote in the new series will depict a different species of Australian wattle and a native bird within a number of the elements. On the $5 banknote, these are the Prickly Moses wattle and the Eastern Spinebill.’

The designs are the culmination of a process of extensive consultation with subject-matter experts and the cash-handling industry, as well as qualitative research involving focus groups. Images of the design artwork for the new $5 banknote have been revealed today to facilitate preparations for the smooth introduction of the new banknotes. Information on the new design and security features (which will be common to all banknotes in the new series) and how they work will be part of a public awareness campaign over coming months. The objective of this campaign will be to ensure that members of the public are able to identify and use the range of new security features on the new $5 banknotes when they start to receive them.

Issuance of the new $5 banknote will commence on 1 September, although it will take some time for the new banknotes to be widely circulated. The current series of banknotes can continue to be used even after the new banknotes are issued.