The new ones – shown to the right of the ones in use now in our front page picture – will have many more and advanced security features, said the bank’s head of banking services Christophe Edmond in an interview he gave with Mike Tirant, who heads the banking, currency and payment system services.

They said the new banknotes have taken over a year to re-design and great care has been taken to ensure the cost effective security features included in the new notes reflect the current theme of flora and fauna from the original banknotes.

The new notes will also feature the signature of the bank’s governor Pierre Laporte, replacing that of his predecessor Francis Chang-Leng.

“At a time when the number of Seychelles rupee counterfeit banknotes is on a steady increase, the introduction of modern security features will help to reduce such fraudulent activity and give the public the much needed confidence in our banknotes,” said Messrs Edmond and Tirant.

The new notes consist of an attractive hologram that replaces the gold and silver sailfish foil.
“The silver holographic sailfish foil on the R50 banknote reflects the Aldabra rail and the number 50 appears when the banknote is held at different angles.

“On the R100 rupee banknote the gold holographic sailfish foil security feature reflects the Seychelles giant tortoise and the figure 100, when the banknote is held at different angles.

“On the 500 rupee banknote the gold holographic sailfish foil security feature reflects the Seychelles scops-owl and the figure 500 when the banknote is held at different angles,” they said.

Additional security upgrades include 2.5mm fluorescent security thread on the 50 rupee, and a 2.5mm security thread whose colour changes when the note is tilted on the 100 rupee. On the R500 note the thread is 3mm wide and also changes colour.

All three denomination notes have a Gemini feature which cannot be seen in normal daylight but fluoresces under ultra-violet light.

Messrs Edmond and Tirant said the feature is very useful to tellers and merchants, adding the UV light machine costs less than R1,000 and can be of great value to those who handle large amounts of money. The notes general colours have been enhanced, with the R50 note being more green – making it easier to differentiate it with the R10 note.

“The R100 rupee is more red and the 500 rupee is more orange in colour compared to the notes now in circulation,” they said.

The current R50, R100 and R500 rupee notes will be gradually withdrawn from circulation but will remain current legal tender banknotes and should continue to be used alongside the upgraded ones,” they said.