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Check out Australia's new $20 bank note

Australia: there’s a new $20 banknote coming. Image: Getty
Australia: there’s a new $20 banknote coming. Image: Getty

Your wallet is about to look a bit different.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has revealed the design of the country’s new $20 banknote, and it’s colourful.

The note will be released into general circulation in October and features portraits of businesswoman Mary Reibey and the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Revered John Flynn.

These Australian figures also appear on the current $20 banknote.

“The new $20 banknote continues to celebrate the lives of two outstanding Australians. Their stories are told through the images we have incorporated on the banknote, which provide a rich and diverse narrative about their life in Australia,” RBA governor Philip Lowe said.

“Improved security and ease of recognition are important characteristics of the new $20 banknote. The same innovative security features from the previously released $5, $10 and $50 banknotes have been incorporated to help keep them secure from counterfeiting.”

Here it is:
The signature side of the note. Image: RBA
The signature side of the note. Image: RBA
The serial number side of the new note. Image: RBA
The serial number side of the new note. Image: RBA
Who are they?

Mary Reibey came to Australia as a convict but earned a reputation as a successful businesswoman through her shipping and trading business

She was also known for her work with charity, religious groups and education.

She’s seen on the signature side of the note with a Port Jackson schooner, similar to the type she owned. Next to it is an Eora nowie (canoe). As the RBA explained, Aboriginal women fishing from nowies were a common sight when Reibey was running her business.

John Flynn was the man behind the world’s first aerial medical service in 1928. Now known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), its mandate was to spread a “mantle of safety” across the outback.

It remains the most comprehensive aeromedical service in the world.

He is seen with a RFDS De Havilland plane leaving a homestead in Broken Hill and a pedal-powered transceiver. These were used to boost communication in rural and remote areas.

The note’s top-to-bottom clear window includes a flying kookaburra that changes colour and moves its wings and a reversing number 20, along with wattle.

This security feature is particularly colourful and also changes colour as it moves. Image: RBA
This security feature is particularly colourful and also changes colour as it moves. Image: RBA

The note also features a patch with a rolling-colour effect and tiny prints of the names of Reibey’s ships and excerpts from Flynn’s books.

The colour changes as the note is rolled. Image: RBA
The colour changes as the note is rolled. Image: RBA

And it has a three dimensional compass with colourful lines.

There’s also a 3D compass. Image: RBA
There’s also a 3D compass. Image: RBA

The new banknotes will also include a tactile feature – three raised bumps on each of the long edges of the banknote – designed to help people who are blind or have low vision to ascertain the denomination of the banknote.

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