1000 Vatu

The 1993 series was Vanuatu's second generation of independent currency, replacing the transitional notes that had circulated since the New Hebrides Condominium's collapse and independence in 1980. The Reserve Bank of Vanuatu was itself only established in 1980, inheriting the awkward monetary legacy of a territory that had operated two parallel currencies — French Pacific francs and Australian dollars — under joint Anglo-French administration.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement was common across former British territories, but Vanuatu's note-issuing history is unusual: the Condominium period left a banking infrastructure split across two colonial systems, neither of which was designed with a unified successor state in mind.