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Swaziland: Problems with New Banknotes

Started by Bimat, August 28, 2011, 10:17:01 AM

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Bimat

New money, new problems
By MUSA SIMELANE on August 28,2011

MBABANE – The new Lilangeni banknotes have not struck the right chord with some people, particularly vendors.

They say the money is identical and therefore easy to lose.

For instance when one means to pay E10, it is easy to make the error of producing a E20 note instead.

Since many are not yet used to the new notes, some claim to have lost a couple of hundreds of Emalangeni.

The new banknotes were rolled-out by the Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS) from as early as November 2010 with E100 notes being the first to be circulated.

At the release of the rest of other denominations in June this year, Martin Dlamini, CBS Governor, said the new banknotes came with upgraded security in line with international standards.

appreciate

A snappy survey conducted by the Times SUNDAY revealed that some small-scale businesspeople, like vendors, did not quite appreciate the new bank-notes.

They felt the old ones were better than the new banknotes - and less confusing.

"I handle money every day, both the old and new banknotes, therefore in my experience with both versions I've found that it is better to use the new ones during daylight," said Sizwe Simelane, a fruit and vegetable vendor at the Mbabane Market. He said he has had cases where his customers mistakenly paid him less or more money as a result of unfamiliarity with the notes.

"For me, the old bank notes are far better and they are easy to differentiate," he said. Zanele Manana, another vendor, said although she felt the new notes had better quality, they are difficult to tell apart.

Consequently, she has had her share of errors, whether receiving money or paying clients.

"I like the fact that the new notes will be very difficult or impossible to forge, but I'm not quite sure about flexibility.

"The old notes can be squashed into a little ball and still be unrolled without being damaged but the hard texture of the new notes to me suggests that they could be easily spoilt," said Manana.

She said the old notes can be easily patched with clear Sellotape, but was unsure about the new ones.

Metical

Martha Gumbi, a Mozambican street vendor in the capital, likened the new banknotes to the Metical banknotes.

This is the Mozambican currency.

She said it is better to be very cautious when using the notes because some have similar hues, like E20 and E10.

"You've got to be careful there or else you could lose some money," she said.

Another vendor at the Mbabane market, who only wanted to be known as Mrs Fakudze, said she had lost money before. She once gave a buyer E100 as change, thinking she was giving her only E20. "I try to be extra observant when dealing in cash nowadays. Whether or not I prefer this money is immaterial because it is in circulation anyway," she said. Sibusiso Mngadi, CBS Head of Corporate Communications, in his response said the public should do what the governor advised two months ago.

"The governor said people should take time to familiarise themselves with the new banknotes. They should look at the notes carefully. Whose fault will it be if a person fails to be careful with their money when using it?" wondered Mngadi.

He said the new banknotes circulate concurrently with the old notes. He added that if some people still have problems with the new notes they must contact the CBS offices in Mbabane.

"They could also come to the Trade Fair at Mavuso where we have a stand," he said.

Mngadi also mentioned that damaged banknotes, whether new or old, should be taken to the CBS for replacement.

Source: Times of Swaziland
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Figleaf

People hate change, of course, and I presume that's part of the problem. I am not sure what the old and new series look like, but the old series may be the notes with the different portraits, while the new series all have the same portraits. If so, this is a nice illustration of banknote psychology.

Portraits are very popular on banknotes. The reason is that wile most people have no eye for detail, we are genetically pre-wired to recognize faces and expressions quickly. A forger who makes a minor error in a face on a banknote may produce a face that everybody recognizes immediately as "different", even though the difference is very subtle. A similar small error in say a building will largely go unnoticed.

Having different faces on the banknotes makes the faces a quick recognition point for people handling money. If the banknotes change and all the banknotes get the same face, there is a problem, even when the banknotes have different colours.

Mr. Mngadi seems to be far removed from reality. He will also grumble when he has to stand in line because payments are taking longer. If you are in the banknote business and you don't know how important speed of payment is you are a fool. If you don't know the government should serve the people and think it is the other way around you should not even be working for the government.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Bimat

Here are images of new banknotes of Swaziland:

10 Emalangeni:



20 Emalangeni:



Aditya


It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Bimat

50 Emalangeni:



100 Emalangeni:



200 Emalangeni:



Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Figleaf

That's even worse than I thought. Sky colours and earth colours abound. Nice, but impractical. My sympathy is with the whiners.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Bimat

#5
BTW, the portrait shown on all the banknotes is of Mswati III. He's considered to be the last absolute monarchs in the world.



Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

chrisild

Just wanted to post a link to the central bank which has some info and images - no more necessary, thanks, Aditya. :) Except that the old notes are about as good or bad: http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/countries/swaziland.html  Seems that the whiners primarily complain about having to get used to new notes ...

Christian

Bimat

Are there people Planning to forge new E200 banknotes?

By BONISILE MAKHUBU on September 24,2011

MBABANE – An accountant of the Central Bank of Swaziland has been suspended following the alleged disappearance of a specimen banknote at the bank.

The disappearance of a specimen of the new E200 notes at the Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS) has resulted to insecurity in the bank and fears that there could be a syndicate that intends forging the new bank notes.

A specimen banknote is printed to see whether or not the design is suitable to be put into full production as a currency issue.

Sometimes, specimen banknotes are printed for distribution to central banks to aid in the recognition of banknotes from a country other than their own. The specimen disappeared a while ago and was allegedly sold to a South African man who later on advertsied it for resale abroad.

It is not known what the intention behind the alleged theft of the money copy, which was launched about six months ago, was.

The copy of the money had been allegedly kept in a safe place in one of the managers' offices together with other specimens. An accountant has since been suspended in connection to the matter.

According to well placed sources at the bank, the suspension came immediately after it transpired that there was a deal involving E30 000 that was entered into for the release of the specimen.

The buyer is allegedly an Indian national based in South Africa.

Sources close to the matter revealed that the manager in charge of the notes was out of the country on business when the suspect asked for the safe keys from the person who was safeguarding the manager's office.

The source further alleged that the leakage of the specimen was discovered thro-ugh the interception of electronic correspondences where the buyer was allegedly advertising it for resale.

It could not be immediately ascertained what the buyer wanted to do with the specimen but fears are that he could sell it to money collectors or people who forge money.

The specimen together with the new bank notes that were launched in June this year, were manuf-actured by Gie-secke & Devrient (G&D), a comp-any ba-sed in Munich in Germany. G&D is a leading supplier of banknote paper, banknote printing, currency automation systems, as well as smart cards and complex system solutions in the fields of telecommunications, electronic payment, health care, identification, transportation and IT security (PKI).

The company did not immediately respond to a questionnaire sent by the Swazi News this week.

Internal investigation underway – Central Bank

MBABANE – The Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS) is investigating the alle-ged theft of a specimen banknote.

CBS Corporate Communications Manager Sibusiso Mnga-di said the bank was not yet ready to comment on the matter or the allegations of how the specimen disappeared.

He neither denied nor confirmed all the events that resulted to the suspension of the officer, which were brought to his attention through a questionnaire sent this week.

Mngadi said they needed time before they could comment on the matter. "This is a matter that is still under (internal) investigation and we are not ready to comment on it yet," he said.

When pressed further on the authenticity of the allegations behind the disappearance of the specimen, Mngadi only said he noted certain inaccuracies in the facts that the reporter presented, but he did not identify them or make an attempt to set the re-cord strai-ght wh-en as-ked to.

I can't comment – suspended officer

MBABANE - The officer of the Central Bank of Swaziland who has since been suspended in connection with the matter said it was still too premature to discuss it with the media.

He confirmed his suspension but refused to discuss details in an interview yesterday.

"I suggest you talk to the bank because the matter concerns the bank and they have not called me to get my side of the story yet," he said.

He said he was willing to discuss what happened but after the bank has engaged him in a meeting. "At the moment I will remain silent because the case is still pending," he said.

He said he had not even been notified about any action the bank allegedly intends to take against him but was suspended from work.

Source
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Bimat

Now this is something funny. ;D

Swazi News gets it wrong, AGAIN

By Winile Mavuso|27 September, 2011 12:48:00

THE Central Bank of Swaziland has put it clear that it was not possible to successfully forge the new banknotes.

The bank rubbished weekend media reports that suggested the new banknotes were susceptible to being counterfeited.

The misleading report was carried by the Swazi News. It was not for the first time the newspaper got its facts wrong.

In a statement issued by the bank's Head of Corporate Communications Sibusiso Mngadi yesterday, the bank said; "In fact, a specimen note makes it difficult to forge money because of the bold inscription, specimen written across the banknote".

Mngadi described the article carried by the Swazi News as malicious and inaccurate. He said the publication was made aware of the facts about the banknotes before publication of the article but "deliberately chose to misinform the public through their injudicious report". In addition, he said, the Central Bank of Swaziland visited the said media house during an educational tour on the new banknotes, where the specimen notes were used for training purposes.

"The Central Bank considers the action of the Swazi News to be mischievous and was seemingly intended to cause malice and unnecessary public panic," Mngadi said. He stressed that the new quality banknotes had advanced security features thus it would be impossible to forge them using a specimen note.

Mngadi said while it might be true that the Central Bank was currently investigating an internal matter involving unauthorised handling of specimen notes, there was absolutely no threat that the new banknotes would be counterfeited.

"It is also important to note that banknotes dealers and collectors exist across the globe. It is not an anomaly that they would also be interested in the Lilangeni. In fact, there have been collectors of the Lilangeni since it started circulating in 1974," Mngadi said.

Source: Swazi Observer
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

chrisild

Quote from: Bimat on September 27, 2011, 04:01:56 PM
Now this is something funny. ;D

Somehow I get the impression that this dispute is not exactly about the notes. ;) Here is an article from April (which does not have anything to do with currency) that says 'SWAZI OBSERVER' CAN'T STOP LYING. http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/04/swazi-observer-cant-stop-lying.html  Independent quality journalism at its best - pick your favorite liar ...

Christian