Coin Curiosity

Australian Decimal Paper Money Fluorescence

While it is well-known that Australia's polymer banknotes use UV fluorescence as a security feature, some of the decimal paper money also used UV fluorescence as a security feature.

Research by Mick Vort-Ronald showed that some Australian decimal paper notes in the mid 1970s and mid 1980s were printed with UV-fluorescent ink.

• Johnston/Stone $1 notes: front yellow vertical band in the centre on prefixes DHB to DNG
• Johnston/Stone $10 notes: back orange wavy lines on prefixes UBH to UCC with numbers less than 306800
• Johnston/Fraser $10 notes: back orange wavy lines on prefixes UCZ to UFP
• Knight/Stone $20 notes: front and back vertical band in the centre on prefixes VEE, VEL and VFR
• Johnston/Stone $20 notes: diagonal yellow lines in the centre on prefix VHF
• Johnston/Stone $20 notes: front vertical band in the centre, back wavy lines in the centre on prefixes VKX, VNG, VNT, VPE, VRH and VQF with varying strength of fluorescence
• Knight/Wheeler $50 notes: back wavy yellow lines
• Johnston/Stone $100 notes: back wavy yellow lines at top left on prefixes ZAR and ZAS
• Johnston/Fraser $100 notes: back wavy yellow lines at top left

There is likely to be further undiscovered fluorescence in the paper money series and likely further varieties (with and without fluorescence notes) to be discovered.