Muscat – Oman’s new banknotes have won the prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards, held in Tallinn, Estonia, recently.

The awards form part of the High Security Printing Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) annual conference. After a hiatus of more than two years, the event was held in Tallinn, with the awards presented at a special ceremony held at Seaplane Harbour during the conference dinner.

The Regional Banknote of the Year Awards recognise outstanding achievement in design, technical sophistication and security of a banknote or banknote series.

The key judging criteria for the awards are that successful banknotes should combine visual artistry and high levels of technical and security sophistication, with considerable emphasis placed on reflecting the cultural heritage of the issuing country in the note, and the relevance of the overall design and symbolism to the issuing country.

In the three categories of the banknote awards this year – Best New Series, Best New Banknote and Best New Commemorative Banknote – Oman, Malawi and Poland received the awards, respectively.

Best New Banknote Series

The winner of the best new series was Central Bank of Oman for its banknotes launched to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Modern Omani Renaissance. ‘The Central Bank is recognised as always having been at the forefront of adopting new banknote security features and the new series was no exception,’ the award committee stated.

The design contract for the new banknotes was awarded to Oberthur Fiduciaire, a French group specialising in printing secure documents and banknotes, while production was part commissioned to Giesecke+Devrient, a German company providing banknote and securities printing.

Oberthur Fiduciaire provided the substrate for the three lower denominations and Giesecke+Devrient for the four higher ones. The first in the series, the RO50, was issued in mid 2020, and the remaining six denominations in early 2021.

The main overt feature on the four higher denominations (RO50, RO20, RO10 and RO5) is varifeye ColourChange Patch, comprising a foil patch with micro-mirror and colour changing technology over a window. They also feature 4mm RollingStar security threads and SICPA’s SPARK Live, with a colour shift matching the thread.

The RO1, meanwhile, was the world’s first banknote to feature Oberthur Fiduciaire’s Pulsar thread, a combination of movement and colour shift.