Australian Banknotes Research Articles

Functional-Semantic Basis of Meaning-Making Structure in News Narrative: Design Change of Australian Banknotes in German News Brands

Functional-Semantic Basis of Meaning-Making Structure in News Narrative: Design Change of Australian Banknotes in German News Brands

Studies into exfoliation and coating of Egyptian blue in methanol for application to the detection of latent fingermarks

We have recently demonstrated that coated exfoliated Egyptian blue powder is effective for detecting latent fingermarks on a range of highly-patterned non-porous and semi-porous surfaces. In this extension of that work, we present our studies into an alternative approach to prepare exfoliated Egyptian blue coated with cetrimonium bromide and Tween® 20 using a simpler technique. The quality of the latent fingermarks developed with these exfoliated powders and the commercial powder were compared in acomprehensive study. Depletion series of natural fingermarks from a wide range of donors (12 males and females) deposited on non-porous (glass slides) and semi-porous (Australian banknotes) surfaces were used in this study. Enhancement in the performance of the coated exfoliated particles compared to the commercial powder was observed, particularly in the case of aged fingermarks and polymer banknotes as challenging substrates.

Новые технологии защитных элементов австралийского доллара как средство профилактики фальшивомонетничества

The paper describes the main means of protecting new-generation Reserve Bank of Australia bank-notes made using both traditional methods and modern technologies. The signs of protection are illustrated, the use of which, on the one hand, makes it difficult to counterfeit, on the other hand, allows you to quickly verify its authenticity without the use of special knowledge, which in turn is one of the ways to prevent counterfeiting in Australia. Drawing on the experience of other States can only contribute to the development of an international strategy to combat counterfeiting. The purpose of this article is to consider not only the degrees of new protection of Australian banknotes from coun-terfeiting, but also the features of the technologies used to create these tools. The research is based on the usage of general and private research methods, including analysis and synthesis, observation and description, as well as special forensic methods.

Where’s the Money? An Investigation into the Whereabouts and Uses of Australian Banknotes

AbstractThe Reserve Bank of Australia is the sole issuer and redeemer of Australian banknotes, but between issuance and destruction there is little information about where banknotes go or what they are used for. We estimate the whereabouts and uses of Australian banknotes, and find that 15–35 per cent are used to facilitate legitimate transactions, 4–7 per cent are used for transactions in the shadow economy, while the remainder are non‐transactional. The vast majority of non‐transactional banknotes are likely to be hoarded, and we estimate that 5–10 per cent of outstanding banknotes are lost or collected.

Currency Demand During the Global Financial Crisis: Evidence from Australia

Australian financial institutions remained healthy throughout the global financial crisis and their deposits were guaranteed by the Federal Government. Nevertheless, demand for currency increased abnormally quickly in late 2008, resulting in an additional $5 billion (or 12 per cent) of Australian banknotes on issue by the end of that year. The rise in currency demand began in mid October 2008, around four weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and concurrently with policy responses of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Federal Government. The surge in currency demand did not have any destabilizing effect on the banking system – indeed bank deposits also rose during the period. However, the rise in currency demand did raise some issues for the RBA's banknote distribution operations. Traditional methods of currency demand suggest a role for interest rate reductions and the Federal Government stimulus payments to households in explaining the increase in currency holdings. We estimate that these factors can only account for around 20 per cent of the observed increase in currency holdings. The remainder of the rise could be due to an increase in precautionary holdings by people concerned about the liquidity or solvency of financial institutions and by financial institutions as a contingency. This is consistent with the disproportionate rise in demand for high-denomination banknotes at this time.

Bank note recognition for the vision impaired

Blind Australians find great difficulty in recognising bank notes. Each note has the same feel, with no Braille markings, irregular edges or other tangible features. In Australia, there is only one device available that can assist blind people recognise their notes. Internationally, there are devices available; however they are expensive, complex and have not been developed to cater for Australian currency. This paper discusses a new device, the MoneyTalker that takes advantage of the largely different colours and patterns on each Australian bank note and recognises the notes electronically, using the reflection and transmission properties of light. Different coloured lights are transmitted through the inserted note and the corresponding sensors detect distinct ranges of values depending on the colour of the note. Various classification algorithms were studied and the final algorithm was chosen based on accuracy and speed of recognition. The MoneyTalker has shown an accuracy of more than 99%. A blind subject has tested the device and believes that it is usable, compact and affordable. Based on the devices that are available currently in Australia, the MoneyTalker is an effective alternative in terms of accuracy and usability.

Diffraction, beauty and commerce

What do a South American butterfly, an Australian banknote, a European moth and an international credit card have in common? The answer is they all use sub-micron grating microstructures as sophisticated optical components to achieve unique visual effects which are difficult to realize with more conventional optics. There is, however, a basic difference between these diffractive optical elements – the visual effect of the credit card hologram or the banknote diffraction grating is viewed in the first diffraction order, whereas the butterfly and moth structures are so fine that there is no first order under normal viewing conditions and the optical behaviour is seen primarily in the zero order (figure 1).