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5000 Vatu
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Vanuatu |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989-2006 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of carved ceremonial masks mounted on sticks, flanked by a schematic outline map of the Vanuatu island chain and an outrigger sailboat vignette. The design is set against a fine guilloche underprint with geometric decorative borders. Bilingual inscriptions in English and French frame the note, with the denomination expressed numerically and in full text. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Thomas De La Rue printed the entire first substantive series for Vanuatu after the country's 1980 independence from its unusual Anglo-French Condominium arrangement — a joint colonial administration that had maintained two parallel currencies, two court systems, and two police forces simultaneously. The vatu replaced both the New Hebrides franc and the Australian dollar in use by different parts of the population.
P#15 ran across nearly two decades of consecutive dating with minimal design revision, which is characteristic of De La Rue contracts with smaller Pacific island central banks during this period. The watermark remains the sole security provision — modest even by the standards of its first issue year.