New banknotes for Hong Kong

Finally! The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has decided to print new banknotes with new designs including the various HK cultures of yum cha, etc. The press conference be released tomorrow.

Hope they do well!

Best regards,
SRL

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2156598/hong-kong-right-money-new-banknotes-featuring-yum-cha-and

They look awesome.

So they will keep the same colour patterns then.
Hong Kong is a mess when it comes to banknotes, since there are several series circulating side by side from different issuers (Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd, Government of the Hong Kong). And now Bank of China seems to enter the game, so that makes them three. Will the other series cease to circulate, or will this new series just be added?

Quote: "ngdawa"​So they will keep the same colour patterns then.
​Hong Kong is a mess when it comes to banknotes, since there are several series circulating side by side from different issuers (Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd, Government of the Hong Kong).

​Having collected older banknotes from Hong Kong, it seems like there were more banks (up to 8 if I'm not mistaken) issuing notes there in the past). The one I have old notes from that seems to have gone kaput is the Mercantile Bank, and also the Government of Hong Kong (which if you can call it a bank, just stopped issuing notes).


1974 Hong Kong 100 Dollars (The Mercantile Bank)

Honestly why they can't just have the government or one bank issue all their notes like in the Straits Settlements/Malaya is unknown to me.

I know right? When I were in Hong Kong in 2009 (before I started collect banknotes), it was really confusing to recieve two $10 notes in change that look nothing like eachother. One was blue with a lion, the other one was plastic with lots of colours. The same goes for Macau, they too have several issuers. (I changed from banks to issuers just because it felt weird to call "Government of the Hong Kong" a bank.)

Well, at least they had enough foresight to make all the higher denominations the same colour... although I know that the 50 dollar note used to purple and the 10 dollar note green, and they switched those colours sometime after British colonial rule ended in 1997.

At least the 100 and 500 notes (the ones I have in my collection and can find online, anyway) seem to be fairly congruent, having been in the same colour (red and brown respectively) since roughly the 1920s.

Well, to clarify, we have had many, many banknote issuers; the Bank of China already entered the game early on. Other than the Mercantile Bank, we also had the Oriental (if I recall correctly) and the old Chartered Bank (extra fact; many Hong Kongers are unaware of the merge between the Standard Bank and the Chartered Bank as the Cantonese term 渣打銀行 remains the same for both the old bank and the current bank).

The colour of our banknotes have remained unchanged until the handover of Hong Kong to China; the only switch was between the $10 and the $50 banknote from green/purple to purple/green respectively. As of 2018, the government (solely) issues the $10 banknotes while the three other banks issue the remaining denominations. HSBC dominates the banknote production and circulation, from my speculation.





The general reception of the banknote designs was, to be fair, not as great. Some people believed the colouring was inappropriate; for example, the family gathering in the $20 note seemed like an obituary image put in front of graves after death. The $100 note was compared to hell money/joss paper; the $500 note seemed like Hong Kong was facing the apocalypse and land crumbled into the sea; the $1000 brain design not reflecting the technological advantage of Hong Kong but rather reflecting 'Hong Kong people have no brains'.

Quote: "SquareRootLolly"​
​The general reception of the banknote designs was, to be fair, not as great. Some people believed the colouring was inappropriate; for example, the family gathering in the $20 note seemed like an obituary image put in front of graves after death. The $100 note was compared to hell money/joss paper; the $500 note seemed like Hong Kong was facing the apocalypse and land crumbled into the sea; the $1000 brain design not reflecting the technological advantage of Hong Kong but rather reflecting 'Hong Kong people have no brains'.

I have no idea how the 20 dollar note looks like an obituary image, or how the 500 dollar note makes it look like Hong Kong is crumbling into the sea (isn't it just a rock formation, like Giants' Causeway in Northern Ireland?)​. In fact the only point I can agree with those critics on is the hell money comparison, but what do I know.

Just bear in mind that the world is often initially unkind to new things.

Quote: "SquareRootLolly"$500 note seemed like Hong Kong was facing the apocalypse and land crumbled into the sea; the $1000 brain design not reflecting the technological advantage of Hong Kong but rather reflecting 'Hong Kong people have no brains'.

​hahahha!! i can totally agree on these two! especially "the sinking hong kong"..

Quote: "CassTaylor"​

Quote: "SquareRootLolly"​​
​​The general reception of the banknote designs was, to be fair, not as great. Some people believed the colouring was inappropriate; for example, the family gathering in the $20 note seemed like an obituary image put in front of graves after death. The $100 note was compared to hell money/joss paper; the $500 note seemed like Hong Kong was facing the apocalypse and land crumbled into the sea; the $1000 brain design not reflecting the technological advantage of Hong Kong but rather reflecting 'Hong Kong people have no brains'.

​ I have no idea how the 20 dollar note looks like an obituary image, or how the 500 dollar note makes it look like Hong Kong is crumbling into the sea (isn't it just a rock formation, like Giants' Causeway in Northern Ireland?)​. In fact the only point I can agree with those critics on is the hell money comparison, but what do I know.
​
​Just bear in mind that the world is often initially unkind to new things.

Note: The hexagonal columns are not a really known feature or attraction in Hong Kong, and prior to the introduction, not many people knew what it was. Also, as part of obscurely showing that Hong Kong is declining as compared to other global cities... you interpret.

Usually, for our culture, we put the images of dead people (usually in a cheerful mood to balance yin and yang; deaths are yin as they go into darkness, but happiness is yang) in a monotone colour, usually greyscale or bluescale. Now it just seems like an unfortunate death of a family and it becomes a mourning image.

Yes, I do keep that in mind; I am looking forward to collecting them!

Quote: "SRL"​Note: The hexagonal columns are not a really known feature or attraction in Hong Kong, and prior to the introduction, not many people knew what it was. Also, as part of obscurely showing that Hong Kong is declining as compared to other global cities... you interpret.
​
​Usually, for our culture, we put the images of dead people (usually in a cheerful mood to balance yin and yang; deaths are yin as they go into darkness, but happiness is yang) in a monotone colour, usually greyscale or bluescale. Now it just seems like an unfortunate death of a family and it becomes a mourning image.
​
​Yes, I do keep that in mind; I am looking forward to collecting them!

​Ah, that bit about the obituary on the 20 dollar note makes sense now.