More delays for new banknotes Switzerland
The Swiss National Bank has announced (PDF) that the new series of banknotes has again been delayed. The new series will be issued in 2015 at the earliest with the 50-francs banknote as the first banknote of the series and the 20-francs the second. From the press release:
The development of the new banknote series began in 2005 with a design competition. In the planning phase for the technical feasibility and during initial production tests in 2010, it became evident that the complexity of the new security features necessitated a postponement of the issue date to autumn 2012. In autumn 2011, during an early phase of the serial production, technical difficulties arose which had not been discernible in the testing phase, whose results were positive. For this reason, the SNB this year decided to conduct a comprehensive re-assessment of the entire project together with the industrial partners producing the new banknote on its behalf. As a result, several mostly technical measures were defined and in some cases have already been implemented. These measures should ensure that the series can go into long-term industrial production.
The decision to postpone has been made easier because of the high standard of security of the current series. About the design the SNB has previously (PDF) made the following remarks:
As mentioned in previous announcements, the new banknote series depicts Switzerland as a meeting place and platform for organisation, creativity, adventure, humanity, progress and dialogue. The current denominations of CHF 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 1,000 and the familiar colours of the individual denominations will remain unchanged, although the new notes will be slightly smaller than the current series.
The designer of the new banknotes is Manuela Pfrunder who entered the competition for the new design with this series of drafts. The final banknotes will differ however from these drafts. The final design will not be published until shortly before the issue date.
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