Australia's polymer notes were the product of decades of joint research between the Reserve Bank and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, with the five-dollar denomination first issued in polymer form in 1992. The P#55A belongs to a later print run and incorporates refinements to the clear window register that had caused minor production headaches in the earliest polymer issues — misalignment between the window cutout and the surrounding print layer was a known fault in some early batches.
Note Printing Australia had by this point licensed the polymer substrate technology internationally, meaning the same manufacturing process used here was already being adopted by other central banks. The domestic note was, in a sense, a demonstration model as much as a circulation piece.
Australia's polymer notes were the product of decades of joint research between the Reserve Bank and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, with the five-dollar denomination first issued in polymer form in 1992. The P#55A belongs to a later print run and incorporates refinements to the clear window register that had caused minor production headaches in the earliest polymer issues — misalignment between the window cutout and the surrounding print layer was a known fault in some early batches.
Note Printing Australia had by this point licensed the polymer substrate technology internationally, meaning the same manufacturing process used here was already being adopted by other central banks. The domestic note was, in a sense, a demonstration model as much as a circulation piece.