So, it looks like last week, on September 28, 2012, the new 20,000LBP note began circulating in Lebanon. Here’s the Central Bank announcement (in Arabic).
The last decade or so has seen a lot of revisions and new notes in circulation. If you ask me, there are a couple of things I don’t like:
- Sizes: I know different sizes are easier to differentiate, but quite frankly, the 100,000 LBP is big enough to have a picnic on. What’s the point if it can’t fit in standard-sized wallets? Plus, it makes it easier to identify the note from far, meaning anyone could spot I had a stack of 100,000 LBP in my wallet (something that never happened, but you get the point =P)
- Colors: They’re very misleading in the worst possible case. The 1,000LBP note (smallest in circulation) is practically identical in color to the 100,000LBP note (largest in circulation) and if you’re not familiar enough with the different sizes, you could end up tipping your waiter 200,000LBP
Too similar?
However, I must hand it to the Central Bank for always seeking to make their bills safer. It appears as if whenever counterfeiters become able to print fake bills, the Central Bank issues new ones, with the latest technology employed to make sure they’re as tough to knock-off as possible. That’s why for example we saw barely 7 (2004/2011) years before changing the 1000LBP as you may all recall (after the blueish one we got the blue-greenish one-color one, now we have the greenish one with the gold)
So things I like:
- Safe: Always getting safer and harder to counterfeit
- Fun: The colors are way too similar to Monopoly money and I think it’s cool carrying pink/red/blue/green/yellow notes around with you. It’s rare you see currency so rainbow-y
And, to sum up, take a look how big a deal 10,000LBP was in 1949. You could get a Central Bank bond for that amount! I don’t know how people kept going after our currency got so horribly depreciated suddenly in the 80s…
