10 000 Vatu 30th Anniversary of Independence

Issued to mark three decades since Vanuatu's independence from joint British-French condominium rule in 1980, this is one of the few commemorative polymer notes from the Pacific to remain legal tender rather than being issued purely as a collector piece. Note Printing Australia, which has handled Vanuatu's polymer output since the late 1990s, produced the note in Melbourne — the same facility responsible for Australia's own polymer currency infrastructure.

The 30th anniversary series attracted modest collector interest regionally but saw genuine circulation, which means uncirculated examples are not as common as the low print runs might suggest.