There should be no repeat of the new-look $5 note's vending machine issues when revamped $10 notes start appearing in circulation this week, the Reserve Bank says, but betting company Tabcorp has already flagged delays before its automated terminals can cope with the new currency
From Wednesday, you may notice a new type of $10 note, the latest change in a push to make Australian cash harder to counterfeit.
Much like the $5 notes introduced last year, the new note will include beefed-up security features and a design to help the vision-impaired, though it won't change in size or colour, and the people on it remain the same.
However, retailers and the RBA will be keen to avoid the problems encountered soon after the release of the latest $5 note, which was last year rejected by some snack and drink vending machines, and gambling terminals.
The RBA's assistant governor for business services, Lindsay Boulton, said businesses with cash-handling machines had been given six months to prepare for the new notes and upgrade their equipment if needed.
"For the $5 note, we made production quality banknotes available to the manufacturers and operators some six months in advance. We've done the same for the new $10 bank note," Mr Boulton said.
"So manufacturers and operators have had the opportunity for the past six months to use those production quality bank notes to make changes to their machines, should they need to do so."
After the experience of last year, he said the RBA expected there would be fewer problems this time around.
"That's our expectation, but again it really depends on the business decision of the equipment manufacturers and operators," he said.
Mr Boulton added that some businesses may have been waiting for the new $10 notes to be issued before spending money on upgrading their equipment.
But a spokesman for wagering giant, Tabcorp said the company was "preparing to update our electronic betting terminals to accept the new 10 dollar note once testing is complete and regulatory clearance obtained".
"Pending regulatory approval, we aim to electronically update the terminals in mid to late October. In the meantime, customers in venues can exchange the new notes for the older $10, or for smaller denomination notes, for use in the terminals," he said.
The $10 note will continue to depict writers, Banjo Paterson and Dame Mary Gilmore, but it will now include a clear strip down the middle of the bill, and two small bumps so it can be easily identified by people who are vision-impaired.
The RBA has printed more than 200 million of the new $10 notes, to be released through banks over the coming weeks. Existing $10 notes will still remain legal tender, but they will gradually be taken out of circulation.
The nation's banknotes are all being changed to upgrade their security features, and the biggest change will occur next year when the new $50 note is introduced. The $50 note is the most widely circulated, but also the most counterfeited note in the country.
"We've viewed the $5 and the $10 as a limbering up exercise, if you like, to get ourselves ready to release the major circulating note which is the $50," Mr Boulton said.
Mr Boulton said it was too early to say if counterfeiting rates had changed since the upgraded $5 note was launched last year.
