## Currency Notes

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Currency Notes](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/12/currency-notes.pdf)

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### Design and symbolism
- The Eastern Caribbean $2 banknote celebrates the islands’ marine life and sporting legends.
- Imagery includes "sea turtles and brightly colored tropical fish" circling coral reefs and conch shells, with cricketing great Sir Viv Richards depicted pulling "a loose delivery away to the boundary."
- The design was commissioned to mark the ECCB’s 40th anniversary in 2023 and aims to "showcase the currency union’s exciting future," according to Camillo Gonsalves, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ finance minister.
- It is the ECCB’s first note that doesn’t feature the British monarch, who "remains head of state in all but one of the six nations and two overseas territories that use the East Caribbean dollar."

### Security features and innovation
- Security and design features combine to form a single scene showing hawksbill turtles and damselfish in a complex polymer window that spotlights the biodiversity of the archipelago’s reefs.
- The banknote incorporates several innovations to prevent counterfeiting.

### Awards and recognition
- The East Caribbean note was selected over nearly 100 other candidates to claim the International Bank Note Society 2023 Bank Note of the Year prize.
- It was named best commemorative banknote by the International Association of Currency Affairs.
- It received a third award from High Security Printing Latin America.

### Sir Viv Richards and sporting heritage
- Sir Viv Richards, described as "one of the world’s greatest batsmen" and popularly known as the "Master Blaster," is featured on the banknote.
- Career highlights cited:
  - Helped the West Indies to victory against Australia in the 1975 Cricket World Cup and "did it again against England four years later."
  - As captain from 1984 to 1991, he led the West Indies in 50 test matches, "the most prestigious form of cricket," and "remains the team’s only captain who never lost a series."
  - He played his entire 17-year career without a helmet.
- At the launch in Antigua and Barbuda, ECCB governor Timothy Antoine said he hoped the new banknote "would inspire people across the region to similar feats of fearlessness."

*Source: Currency Notes (PDF)*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/12/currency-notes.pdf_