35 years ago, in 1991, Papua New Guinea (PNG) introduced its first polymer banknote – the 2 kina. This made it the first country after Australia to adopt the then new technology, and helped begin a period of change in currency across the Pacific region.

The Bank of Papua New Guinea has issued a new 100 kina banknote, commemorating the first anniversary of the death of the late Sir Julius Chan, one of the nation’s most influential political and economic leaders.

The Central Bank of Bolivia (CBB) has announced that, as a result of the plane crash that occurred on 27 February in the district of El Alto (part of the capital, La Paz), banknotes in the denominations of Bs10, Bs20 and Bs50 of Series B, corresponding to the New Boliviano Banknote Series, are no longer legal tender.

Following the overthrow of the Assad regime in late 2024, Syria’s transitional government introduced a re-designed and re-denominated series of banknotes at the beginning of 2026 (see CN January 2026). It did this as part of a monetary reform strategy aimed at re-establishing a sound banking sector based on financial stabilisation, transparent foreign exchange, secure digital payments, and sustainable financial inclusion.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) has introduced a new family of Fijian dollar banknotes, with a launch ceremony held on 2 December 2025. The notes – in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 – were designed and printed by Crane Currency on CCL Secure’s GUARDIAN™ substrate, and is the first polymer series to use the integrated MOTION SURFACE® micro-optic stripe on all denominations. The banknotes were issued on 2 January 2026.

The Central Reserve Bank of Peru has issued a new version of the 200 soles banknote.

The Regional Banknote of the Year Awards form part of the High Security Printing (HSP) EMEA conference. This year there were awards for Best New Banknote, Best New Series and Best New Commemorative Banknote, along with Best House Note and, for the first time, Best New Process or Technology.

Celebrating the 35th Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which took place December to January in Rabat and was eventually won by Senegal, Morocco’s Bank Al-Maghrib has issued a commemorative 250 dirham silver coin and a commemorative 100 dirham banknote.

DataVault tells us that the use of patches on banknotes is increasing, albeit from a low base. In 1999 two issuers had applied a patch to their currency, as of late 2025 the number was 32, just under 20%. The adoption rate is slow but steady. The uptake appears to have no regional or size bias. From Jersey through to Nigeria.

Syria has issued a new currency, removing portraits of the Assad family and redenominating to remove two zeroes.