Cyprus joined the euro zone on 1 January 2008, and the pound series was withdrawn at that point — giving notes from this final decade of issue a definite end date that collectors can anchor to. The 1997 date places this squarely in the last Oberthur printing run for the series, though the design itself had been in circulation well before that year.
Oberthur's Chantepie plant was among the more technically capable security printers in Europe during the 1990s, but this note's security specification — watermark and thread only — reflects the relatively modest threat environment Cyprus faced at the time rather than any limitation of the printer.
Cyprus joined the euro zone on 1 January 2008, and the pound series was withdrawn at that point — giving notes from this final decade of issue a definite end date that collectors can anchor to. The 1997 date places this squarely in the last Oberthur printing run for the series, though the design itself had been in circulation well before that year.
Oberthur's Chantepie plant was among the more technically capable security printers in Europe during the 1990s, but this note's security specification — watermark and thread only — reflects the relatively modest threat environment Cyprus faced at the time rather than any limitation of the printer.