Friday, September 14, 2012

Odd Banknotes - 05 Thailand

Another 'odd' banknote, and guess, from Thailand indeed.

This time, it's not the king who's central in the picture, but the queen!
Portrait of H.R.H. Queen Sirikit
At the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Queen, the Thai banknote company issued a special and unique banknote of 80 baht. However it was sold for a higher price, as a part of the money was given to the foundation that supports the well being of the Thai people, as well as for the conservation and restoration of Thai arts and culture.
front side of the commemorative banknote of 80 baht
The front side of the banknote, shows the royal couple, the royal garuda at the left upper corner, and at the bottom we see a serial number.
As I told you in my previous post, the serial number starts with a "9", referring to the nineth king of the Chakri dynasty (King Rama IX).
This time the letter, following the nine, is not a K (King) but a Q (Queen).

serial number 9 Q
Very special is a print design in blue metallic ink.
Right of the Queen, the flower that is shown all over the banknote, is printed in a way that can not be seen when looking frontal to the note.
Only when the banknote is tilted, the design becomes visible (but hard to show on a scan).

hidden print of a flower
If you look closely, you can see :
1 : leaf of the flower
2 : branch of the flower
3 : flower upside down

The back side of the banknotes showes images of the life of the Queen and her family.
We also can see a security thread on the surface of the paper, at regular intervals. This security thread is in blue and shows numerous "80's"

back side of the commemorative bankonte
details and security marks
4 : security thread with "80" (dark blue images)
5 : watermark with queen's initials

The queen's initials are a watermark in 2 colours (dark and light) and swap colours when the banknotes is lightened from the back side.

two letters of the queen's initials
seen backwards
Queen's initials
more odd notes to follow ...

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