bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Trial will test public acceptance of 'cleaner, more durable and secure note'

Plastic HK$10 notes will go on a trial as early as June, circulating alongside the existing notes and coin, as foreshadowed by the Post on December 29 last year.

With two HK$10 notes already in circulation - green ones issued by the banks and purple ones by the government - plus the HK$10 coin,  there will be  four  units of  the humble denomination  in circulation.

The new polymer note  is seen as more durable and harder to forge than  paper money which, despite its name, is made of  cotton fibre.

Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen said the trial was aimed at finding out whether the community would accept plastic notes.

'Experience in countries that have introduced polymer notes suggests that they are cleaner, more durable and secure,' Mr Tang said. 'They are also more environmentally friendly, since they last longer and can be recycled for other use.'

The design of the new note will largely resemble the government's existing HK$10 paper note, except for changes made to add security features.

Visible new features are a clear window with the numeral 10 and a shadow image of a bauhinia flower, a ribbon image with two shifting colours and a watermark-like image of the numeral 10.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority deputy chief executive Choi Yiu-kwan  said the HKMA would issue the new note around June subject to the testing of note processing machines in the next three months.

He added that the authority had not set a timetable for expanding the use of polymer notes.

'HKMA will evaluate the quality, security, durability and public acceptance of the new note before considering whether or not to extend the use of polymer notes to other denominations of banknotes,' Mr Choi said.

It cost 30 to 40 per cent more to make a polymer note than a paper one, but the plastic ones lasted longer, reducing overall production costs in the long term by as much as 40 per cent, Mr Choi said.

There are about 150 million HK$10 notes circulating in the city, each costing  56 cents.

The life cycle of plastic notes is up to eight years, compared with 18 to 24 months for paper banknotes.

Australia has used  polymer substrate notes  since 1992 and the material is now also  used in  New Zealand, Romania, Brazil, Chile, Malaysia and Singapore.

According to the HKMA,  since Australia started using polymer notes, the number of counterfeit notes seized had dropped 63 per cent.

In New Zealand,   there had been a 96 per cent drop  since polymer notes were introduced in 1999.

One major drawback of plastic notes is that they are  difficult to fold.

Mr Choi said a trial issue of polymer notes had failed in Thailand in recent years, where people are  used to folding their banknotes.

Without saying  how many of the new notes  would be issued,  Mr Choi said there would be 'enough' of them and asked the public not to hoard the new notes.

University of Hong Kong geography professor Jim Chi-yung  said plastic notes had the advantage of being more hygienic.

'When banknotes are being circulated, many people have contact with them,' Professor Jim said. 'Housewives receive a lot of wet and dirty banknotes at wet markets.'



Plastic HK$10 note to make debut in June