Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5000 Vatu
| Issuer | Central Bank of Vanuatu |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 160 × 79 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Brown and lilac tones over a multicolor underprint, with the national arms vignette at center flanked by a Melanesian chief standing with spear. Trilingual inscriptions in English, French, and Bislama frame the composition, with denomination text in both English and French rendered in bold lettering. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Brown tones over a multicolor underprint, with a central vignette illustrating the traditional Gol land-diving ceremony: a man observes another diver leaping from a log tower, capturing this ritual unique to the islands of Vanuatu. Bislama-language inscriptions appear with the numeral denomination. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Vanuatu's currency, the vatu, was introduced in 1981 following independence from the Anglo-French condominium that had governed the New Hebrides since 1906 — one of the more administratively peculiar colonial arrangements in the Pacific, where British and French law operated simultaneously on the same territory. The Central Bank itself was established under the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu Act of 1980, and De La Rue handled the printing contract from the outset.
The P#4 is the highest denomination in the original independence-era series. At the time of issue, 5000 vatu represented a substantial sum in an economy heavily dependent on copra, beef, and emerging offshore financial services.