This was published 7 years ago
Australia's new $10 note: Poetry, plants, a shy cockie and a high-country horseman
By Liam Mannix
Australia, meet your new $10 bank note.
The Reserve Bank of Australia released images for the new note on Friday, as part of the continual rollout of new currency.
The new design updates the previous version which was first released in 1993, and is part of a full redesign of every note the RBA is slowly rolling out.
The $10 will be slowly released into circulation in September, and should start turning up in your wallet some months after that.
The Banjo Patterson side of the new $10 note.Credit: RBA
The note is a fusion of new and old. Writer AB 'Banjo' Paterson and poet and journalist Dame Mary Gilmore still have pride of place on the front and back, but Dame Mary's image has been substantially updated using a photograph of her when she was in her early 20s.
The note comes complete with symbols of rural life – sulphur-crested cockatoos, a farm-house and windmill, bramble wattle. Another cockatoo is hidden in the note's bottom left corner, and only appears under UV light.
The Dame Mary GilmoreCredit: RBA
Alongside Patterson sits a picture of a horseman – a nod to The Man from Snowy River.
Turn the note over and Dame Mary is surrounded by images of rural homesteads, which were frequently referenced in her work, along with a picture of the poet taken in her later years.
The note also contains a see-through panel in the centre, first introduced to the public in the new $5 note.
If you hold the note close to your face and squint hard enough you may even be able to read excerpts, printed in tiny letters, of both writers' famous works.
On the Patterson side are printed verses from Snowy River, while Dame Mary is accompanied by lines from her patriotic poem No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest.
The new notes contain a range of updated security features meant to deter fraud, including the see-through patch and several holographic elements that can be seen by moving the note slowly from side to side.
It also contains tactile bumps, designed to assist the vision-impaired community.
The RBA is releasing the updated notes to keep up with the increasing sophistication of note-forgers, RBA governor Philip Lowe said last year.
"Our current banknotes have stood the test of time, but as technology has improved so have counterfeiting capabilities, and there has been some increase in counterfeiting."