On December 4, 2023, the National Reserve Bank of Tonga (NRBT) issued its new series of banknotes in the denominations of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pa'anga.
All banknotes were printed by De La Rue plc. The 5- and 10-pa'anga notes were printed on the Safeguard® polymer substrate, the rest on a cotton-based substrate.
Two types of specimens were created for use by the NRBT. Let us first review what a specimen is. A specimen banknote is usually printed in very limited quantities for distribution to central banks to assist in the recognition of banknotes from a country other than its own. In some cases, specimen banknotes are distributed to commercial banks, to law enforcement agencies, to commercial enterprises and are sometimes used to educate the public at large about new designs. Sometimes specimen banknotes are sold to collectors (often packaged in special commemorative folders or albums). Occasionally, specimen banknotes are distributed as gifts to dignitaries or to employees of central banks, often in special presentation albums. When a central bank places a print order, it specifies the number of specimens that it wants to receive.
In the case of the NRBT, these two types of specimens were produced:
- official, bank specimens with serial numbers A000000, the word "SPECIMEN" in red in the upper left and lower right corners and "SPECIMEN No xxx" in red in the lower left corner, where xxx = 001 through 100. Thus, 100 bank specimens were produced for internal use by the bank. The reverses of the bank specimens have no overprints at all and look just like the issued banknote.
- official, collector specimens with serial numbers A000000 and the word "SPECIMEN" in red printed diagonally on both the obverse and reverse of each note. 1000 collector specimens were produced and are just as official as the bank specimens, just created for a different audience.
Both specimen types from Tonga are highly collectable and nice additions to any collection.
As had been done with its previous two series, the NRBT also packaged matching number sets in presentation folders for sale to the public. Serial numbers 1 through 100 were chosen, plus about 250 other random numbers, some low numbers under 500 and many representing years, like 1965, 2024, etc. These matching number sets in presentation folders proved very popular with the bank employees, who purchased many of them themselves. Many purchased their birth year and/or other numbers having a special significance to them. (Even the banknotes in the official presentation set that was used at the unveiling ceremony and is also on display in the lobby of the NRBT have a special serial number , the year of issue.) These presentation folders were all hand-signed by the Governor of the NRBT.
In addition to the normal circulation banknotes, the specimens and the matching number sets in presentation folders, replacement notes exist for all six denominations. The replacement prefix letter is Z instead of A.
All of the above items have now found their way into the collectors' market with the official bank specimens being the scarcest of them all.
