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New K10,000 Notes to Feature General Aung San

canlender28/05/2019

AUTHOR: SWE LEI MON

The Central Bank of Myanmar will be issuing new K10,000 notes in 2020; the new bills are to feature a picture of General Aung San, the late hero of the country’s independence. This announcement came from U Soe Thein, the Vice President of the nation’s Central Bank.

At a press conference held by the bank during the third week of May, during which they reported their accomplishments during the government’s third year in office, he said: “The new notes with the image of General Aung San may be released as early as the end of 2019; if not by the end of the year, then they will be released in early 2020.”

According to the Vice President, the Central Bank is currently preparing the security features and overall design of the new notes. However, he did not share details such as how many of the new K10,000 notes will be printed.

This is not the first time General Aung Sang, who was the father of Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has graced Myanmar bank notes. The General first appeared on the nation’s currency notes in 1958, ten years after he and eight of his colleagues were assassinated. He was also featured on the K25 note of 1972, the K5 and K10 notes in 1973, the K100 notes of 1976, and the K50 notes of 1979.

Other notable historical figures from Myanmar’s modern history have also been featured on currency bills. Among these were the 1987 K45 notes; these portrayed Thakhin Pho Hla Gyi, an oil field worker who led a protest against low wages during the British colonial era. The K75 notes of 1985-1987 used a picture of Saya San, a farmer who staged a peasant revolution against the British Government over the low prices of rice.

However, bills featuring famous individuals from the nation’s history were gradually removed from circulation after the rise of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a leader of the Burmese pro-Democracy movement, which followed the 1988 student uprising. Following 1988, the military government replaced the historical figures with pictures of lions and elephants on currency notes.

It was not until 2017 that the union parliament once again approved the use of General Aung San’s image on currency notes.