BOT to issue new Bt1,000 banknotes

BANGKOK, August 17 (TNA) - The Bank of Thailand (BOT) will issue new 1,000-baht banknotes into the circulation system nationwide on August 21, 2015. BOT Governor Prasarn Triratvorakul told journalists on Monday that the new baht-denominated notes, the 16th edition, will replace the current 1,000-baht notes, which have been in the domestic circulation for the past decade. Prasarn said the 16th edition 1,000-baht notes were designed in honour of Thailand's late King Rama 5 or King Chulalongkorn the Great, who introduced the use of banknotes for the first time in the Thai history. Besides, the new design is aimed to reduce the problem of counterfeit notes by exploiting modern technologies. The BOT governor announced that the general public can trade the old edition 1,000-baht notes with the new ones, starting from August 21, at all branches of commercial banks nationwide, while BOT expects the new version of the 1,000-baht banknotes to completely replace the present 15th edition within the next 1-2 years. According to the BOT chief, the new edition of the 1,000-baht banknotes is 72 millimetres wide and 162 millimetres long each in brownish colour generally. The 16th edition 1,000-baht banknotes are also designed with special features, aimed to prevent counterfeiting, such as a watermark printed in the picture of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, while the Thai numbers of 1,000 are designed to be transparent and can be clearly seen on both sides when lifted to the light, as well as a 3-dimension foil seal. For people with impaired sights, they can touch and realise a 1,000-baht note by an embossed horizontal line in the shape of four flowers representing a "T", which stands for "Thousand". (TNA)