20 Kina

Papua New Guinea adopted polymer for its banknote series well ahead of most Pacific nations, and this 2021 issue continues a run of polymer 20 Kina stretching back to the mid-1990s. Note Printing Australia has been the sole printer for this denomination throughout that period — an unusually long and exclusive relationship for a Pacific central bank.

The kina itself was introduced in 1975, coinciding with independence, replacing the Australian dollar at par. That clean one-to-one conversion was politically tidy but economically optimistic; the kina has depreciated substantially against the Australian dollar in the decades since.