Kicking off its Public Information Campaign on upgraded notes yesterday, the central bank said the old notes have been recalled and must be exchanged at commercial banks by next Monday. Banks are not allowed to charge for exchanging the old notes.
Hlengani Mathebula of the executive management department of the SARB explained that though the public have until Monday to exchange the notes, the bank's seven branches around the country will exchange the notes after the cut-off date.
This after the bank issued a statement recalling the R200 note denomination in April stating concern at the "relatively high quality counterfeit notes of the old series."
Consumers are urged to look for at least three security features of the upgraded banknotes. The upgraded notes sport a coat of arms in the front top left corner of all denominations (the R10; R20; R50; R100 and R200 notes).
The notes are printed on a special paper that has a distinct crackling sound when handled. The watermark on the note includes the note's value number while the windowed security threads (which are 4mm wide on the R100 and R200 notes) when held up to light display the words SARB and RAND as well as note's value number. The coat of arms also appears in the thread when one tilts the note.
The new R200 note also sports diamond shapes at the bottom of the front of the note that have a raised feel to assist blind people. Additionally the new R50; R100 and R200 notes also have colour changing ink on the front bottom right which is printed in ink that changes colour when the note is tilted. The seventh feature of the new denominations is the gold shimmering band at the back of all banknotes. When tilted the Coat of Arms and the banknote's value number appear.
ATM machines are only dispatching the new note and Mathebula describes the new banknotes as "a normal process" since the last denominations were printed between 1994 and 2005. "They are genuine and legal South African notes. They are legal tender," Mathebula said of the old notes. "The recalling is not triggered by counterfeit, it is not our preoccupation. It is a normal process."
On the issue of businesses not accepting the old R200 notes the central bank's head of currency and protection services Aboobaker Ismail said: "We need to understand that all notes are legal tender. Businesses not accepting them are not acting correctly."
The SARB is also in discussions with the Common Monetary Area (CMA) countries (Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho) that all have their respective currencies pegged to the Rand about the new denominations.
The bank's campaign to inform the public kicks off today with a TV campaign running on all SABC channels and etv expected to run for two weeks with a second insert in all major newspapers following on 13 June.
A pamphlet campaign targeting visitors for the World Cup at all international airports will inform visitors of the country's money.
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