Catalog
5 Pa'anga
| Issuer | National Reserve Bank of Tonga |
|---|---|
| Year | 2009 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The central vignette renders a large stepped royal burial mound (langi) near Mu'a on Tongatapu in intaglio, surrounded by tropical vegetation and set within a purple guilloche underprint. To the right, a decorative panel carries the Tongan cross and star motif alongside a vignette of palm trees and a second terraced langi structure in the lower right corner. The denomination '$5' appears at upper right and 'Pa'anga 'e Nima' is lettered across the lower portion of the note. |
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| Protection description | King Tupou V and the letters 'NRBT' visible when held to light; windowed security thread embedded vertically through the centre of the note with 'NRBT' microtext |
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| Comments |
Tonga's National Reserve Bank was established in 1989, taking over note-issuing functions from the Bank of Tonga — itself a relatively young institution. The 2009 series, of which this is part, was printed by De La Rue under contract, a long-standing arrangement typical of smaller Pacific island states that lack domestic security printing capacity.
P#39 is not a scarce note and circulated widely. The security package — watermark and embedded thread — reflects the minimum specification De La Rue applied to lower-denomination contracts at the time.