Catalog
1000 Vatu
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Vanuatu |
|---|---|
| Year | 1993 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on multicolour underprint. Central vignette shows the national arms with a Melanesian chief standing and holding a spear. A solid security thread is embedded vertically towards the middle-left of the note. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Black intaglio on multicolour underprint. The composition incorporates traditional Melanesian carvings alongside a map of the Vanuatu archipelago, with three men manning an outrigger sailboat in the foreground. |
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| Comments |
The 1993 series was Vanuatu's second generation of independent currency, replacing the transitional notes that had circulated since the New Hebrides Condominium's collapse and independence in 1980. The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu was itself only established in 1980, inheriting the awkward monetary legacy of a territory that had operated two parallel currencies — French Pacific francs and Australian dollars — under joint Anglo-French administration.
Thomas De La Rue's involvement was common across former British territories, but Vanuatu's note-issuing history is unusual: the Condominium period left a banking infrastructure split across two colonial systems, neither of which was designed with a unified successor state in mind.