100 Kwacha

Malawi's shift to polymer for its lower denominations in 2012 made the continued use of cotton paper for the 100 Kwacha an increasingly deliberate policy choice — one driven more by procurement cost and printing infrastructure than by security concerns. The Reserve Bank maintained the cotton substrate for this denomination through the entire P#65 run despite the broader regional trend toward polymer.

The watermark remains the sole security feature listed, a notably thin specification for a denomination that, given the kwacha's sustained depreciation against the dollar through this period, represented diminishing but still real purchasing power in daily transactions.