## Tradition and Technology

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Tradition and Technology](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/09/currency-notes-tradition-and-technology-jeff-kearns)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/09/currency-notes-tradition-and-technology-jeff-kearns/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/09/currency-notes-tradition-and-technology-jeff-kearns/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/09/currency-notes-tradition-and-technology-jeff-kearns/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Jeff Kearns, MELINDA WEIR
- Published: September 3, 2025

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### Historical context
- Bermuda’s first coins were minted around 1616 and were known as “hogge money.”
- The early coins featured a galleon on one side and a hog on the other, referencing free-roaming swine left by Spanish and Portuguese mariners.
- The poor-quality early coinage was abandoned after a few years when tobacco became the local currency.
- The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) was created in 1969.
- The Bermuda dollar has been pegged to the US dollar since 1972; both currencies circulate interchangeably.

### New banknote issuance and themes
- The BMA introduced new $2 and $5 banknotes last year.
- Planned future updates will cover $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills.
- Design themes continue to highlight Bermuda’s flora, fauna, and landscape, consistent across issuance since the BMA’s creation.
- The $5 note depicts a blue marlin, Horseshoe Bay Beach, and Somerset Bridge (a short early 1600s span known as the world’s smallest drawbridge with a wood plank less than a meter wide that can be raised to let sailboat masts pass).
- The $2 note depicts a Bermuda bluebird, the Dockyard clock tower, and the statue of Neptune, reflecting Bermuda’s role as a Royal Navy base for centuries.
- Both notes show the new head of state, King Charles III, in his first appearance on Bermuda currency.

### Durability and accessibility features
- These are Bermuda’s first notes printed on polymer substrate (a thin plastic that’s easier to keep clean than cotton and is expected to circulate more than twice as long).
- Visually impaired users can identify the notes by embossed dots: a triangle on the $2 note and a circle on the $5 bill.

### Security and advanced design features
- Security details include:
  - A reflective tuna with a shadow outlined on the opposite side.
  - Another tuna visible when lit from behind.
  - A clear window showing clouds and underwater scenes.
  - Waves, fish, and the sun that flash gold when notes are tilted.
  - Ultraviolet light–revealed hidden elements.
- These high-tech security measures build on a long history of banknote design and technology.

### Reception and recognition
- Bermuda’s pink $5 bill won the Banknote of the Year award from the International Bank Note Society, which cited its high-tech security measures and “colorful, eye-pleasing design.”
- The industry group High Security Printing Latin America named the $2 and $5 best new 2025 notes.

*Jeff Kearns and Melinda Weir, F&D Magazine, September 2025.*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Tradition and Technology**
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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/09/currency-notes-tradition-and-technology-jeff-kearns_