Banknote of the Month: Bahamas $10

What goes around, comes around…

The portrait gracing The Bahamas’ 10-dollar (£6.50) note has ping-ponged back and forth between Sir Stafford Sands and Queen Elizabeth II several times in less than two decades.

Back in 1996, Her Majesty was featured on this denomination, only to be replaced by Sir Stafford in 2000, who was in turn booted from the bill in 2005 when the Central Bank of The Bahamas (www.centralbankbahamas.com) issued a revised $10 note as the first member of its new family known as CRISP (Counterfeit Resistant Integrated Security Product).

With the 2010 introduction of the latest $10 notes, Sir Stafford again replaces the Queen, but for how long is anyone’s guess.

Sir Stafford is now known as the Father of Bahamian tourism and he had served as minister of finance, but his political opponents branded him a racist, and it appears that every time power changes hands on this island nation, so too do the portraits on these notes.

The new $10 note is almost identical to its predecessor except for the portrait (Sir Stafford), date (2009), and signature (Governor Wendy Craigg). Its colours remains dark blue, dark green, and maroon, and the front depicts a sand dollar, map, and portrait.

On the back one finds a vignette of Hope Town and Abaco, with a lighthouse, buildings, and boats, as well as a coat of arms. Printed in the UK by De La Rue, the note is protected by a solid security thread and a 3-mm windowed security thread with demetalised BAHAMAS, and a watermark of Sir Stafford with electrotype 10 and Cornerstones.