50 Pa'anga

Thomas De La Rue has printed Tongan currency for decades, and this 2009 issue continues a long contractual relationship that has made De La Rue the de facto house printer for Pacific island states too small to operate their own security press facilities. The 50 Pa'anga sits at the top of the circulating series for that period — a denomination heavy enough that most everyday transactions never saw one.

Security on this note is relatively modest by 2009 standards: watermark and thread, with no optically variable ink or color-shifting features. De La Rue was capable of more, but smaller-volume Pacific orders rarely justified the tooling costs for advanced substrates.