By Dwayne Gibbs on Thursday, 5 May, 2022 at 05:30 PM

During an official ceremony at the Tom Adams Financial Center on Wednesday, the Central Bank of Barbados unveiled new banknotes to the general public which will be in circulation by December.

Gareth Evans, the Currency Director of De La Rue, the English company that will manufacture the banknotes, spoke about the new material being used for the money which is polymer as opposed to paper.

Evans stated that polymer is a lot more durable so banknotes will last considerably longer in circulation.

He added the polymer material also allowed for the inclusion of new security features to make the banknotes much harder to replicate but easy to authenticate.

The third benefit Evans said was the new polymer notes will be easier for people visually impaired to distinguish by touch. 

The banknotes will maintain the current faces of Barbados' national figures and colour coding from the two-dollar bill to the hundred-dollar bill, but they will carry new artwork.

Chief of Communications for the Central bank of Barbados, Novaline Brewster said, “We at the Central Bank of Barbados are humbled and elated by how Barbados has responded to the new banknotes.”

 “The polymer notes will co-circulate with the paper notes when we launch them in December this year," she said when asked about what this means for the current banknotes and if they will be brought out of circulation.