Madagascar banknotes update

The most complete catalog possible!

All the cards of the Numizon catalog for the banknotes of Madagascar have been updated and we took the opportunity to add the 24 banknotes of the last series of the Central Bank, in order to offer you the most complete catalog possible ... There is no shortage now more than the part devoted to emergency issues with the stamps of the colonial treasury, the tickets for the Nossi-Bé plantations and the colonial Tresor Public 500 and 1000 francs dated 1896!

Presentation of new banknotes classified by issue

1) The only known note for the Colony of Madagascar and Dependencies!

2) Banknotes from the 2003 Issue. In 2002, France entered the European currency. It is finally an opportunity for Madagascar to move away from the Franc and to definitively free itself from the French colonial imprint. But the undisclosed urgency is first of all to fight against counterfeit notes which circulate en masse in the "red island". So, in June 2003, on a proposal from President Marc Ravalomanana, the country adopted a new monetary unit: the Ariary, which became the official currency of Madagascar with an exchange rate defined at the time of € 1 for 1,400 MGA. The new banknotes printed in the summer of 2003 are then denominated in both Franc and Ariary and mark the beginning of a transition which will last until 2007.

3) The 7 banknotes from the 2004-2006 Issues. This series does not change from the previous one for the three largest values of 2000, 5000 and 10000 ariary. The Central Bank of Madagascar however takes the decision to add four new banknotes of 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Ariary. These notes are all dated 2004 on the back and have a new security sign made up of small yellow circles called “Omron rings” or “EURion Constellation” (1) which are printed on the sides of the notes. Symbols printed in relief have also been added on the upper right edge of the banknotes to facilitate the recognition of values by the blind (a square for the 100 ariary, a triangle for the 200 ariary, a circle for the 500 ariary and two lines for the 1000 ariary).

4) The 3 banknotes from the 2007-2015 Issues. This series of notes is the first to have been issued only in Ariary, a small revolution for all Madagascans!

5) The 2 notes of the unauthorized Issue of 2007. This series appeared on the occasion of the launch in 2007 of the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP) whose objective is to fight poverty and improve the country's economy. Although this project is supported by USAIDS, the Central Bank of Madagascar has always denied being at the origin of this issue! These banknotes are identical to the previous issue, but include new features perfectly identified such as the number prefix which begins with "MAP" followed by the six digits numbers of the note.

The intricacies of the 2000, 5000 and 10,000 ariary

The three banknotes from 2000, 5000 and 10,000 ariary have the distinction of having been issued several times between 2003 and 2015. All versions of these 3 banknotes seem perfectly identical. Despite everything, they have such discreet specificities that it is practically impossible to detect them with the naked eye without looking a little closer! So that you can more easily identify the variants of these three notes in the future, we offer a precise comparison with for example the 2000 ariary:

5) The 8 new notes from the 2017 Issue. This series corresponds to the notes currently in circulation in Madagascar ...

Note

(1) Wikipedia definition: the EURion constellation is the name given to an arrangement of symbols found on many banknotes since 1996. It is intended to be detected by image processing software in order to prevent counterfeiting using a color photocopier.