Mondo Knows Facts
Australia issued the first polymer banknote in 1988
The plastic ten dollar note was made for the bicentenary and survives washing The Reserve Bank of Australia released a polymer ten dollar note in January 1988, the first circulating note printed on plastic film. A clear window moulded into the sheet is extremely hard to copy, and the material does not tear when wet or crease like paper. Dozens of countries have since switched to the same substrate. It sits in Mondo's everyday life collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: money, banknotes, plastics
Australia issued the first polymer banknote in 1988: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The plastic ten dollar note was made for the bicentenary and survives washing. The figure is taken from Reserve Bank of Australia, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a everyday life fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Everyday Life shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.