"Look, feel and tilt," are words the Central Bank hopes will make up "part of all consumer DNA" in the coming weeks and months as it best illustrates the steps to confirm the authenticity of new €50 banknotes.
The latest edition of the note is due to start circulating across the Republic and the wider euro zone on Tuesday morning.
The new note is the fourth in the Europa series of banknotes to be released in the last four years and while the new release is the same size and much the same in appearance as the existing note, it has a number of enhanced security features aimed at combating counterfeiters.
It feels more crisp and firmer than the old note while the raised print around the main image, the lettering and the largest numeral feels thicker.
Among the security features introduced are more complex watermarks, a hologram of the goddess Europa along the foil strip, raised sections at the sides and a shiny metallic green number 50 which shimmers when viewed from a certain angle.
When the banknote is held against the light, the window near the top of the hologram becomes transparent and reveals a portrait of Europa. Rainbow-coloured lines on both sides of the note are also visible.
Changes
When the banknote is tilted, more rainbow-coloured lines appear around the value numeral and in the window on the back of the banknote while the shiny number in the bottom left corner displays an effect of the light that moves up and down and the number changes from emerald green to deep blue.
The existing €50 note will remain legal tender "ad infinitum", according to the Central Bank's director of currency and corporate services Paul Molumby. And the new banknote will circulate alongside the old one for as long as it takes for the old to disappear.
Mr Molumby estimated that more than half of all €50 notes in circulation this time next year will be the new model. And he said the State’s banks and large retail chains had been “frontloaded” with the new currency ahead of the release.
He said that while the new notes would be sturdier than the ones they were replacing, durability and the consequential cost effectiveness were secondary concerns and were superseded by security issues.
“The primary consideration is that the notes would have the confidence of the public,” he said.
