The Angola Reserve Bank unveiled its new currency series this week, which includes new banknotes and coins.

Officials from the Reserve Bank say the new notes are equipped with new security features that will help prevent counterfeiting.

“The bills bear codes of high standards of trust and more durability,” AllAfrica.com reported.

The new notes are expected to have an average durability of seven years and the design will depict “traces of the Angolan identity” including images of the country’s natural landscapes.

Aside from the added security features, officials from the Bank say they are hoping the new design will appeal to the country’s population. According to AngolaPress, the country maintains a high circulation of foreign currency “which is stimulated by the geographic position of the region that borders with Namibia to the south and Zambia to the east.”

Ramos da Cruz, the administrator of the Reserve Bank, stressed this point in the unveiling ceremony earlier this week.

“We explained the main advantages in the use of the new notes and coins, their modern and more efficacious methods of security and also mentioned the need for the use of metallic coins,” he said.

The new currency will be introduced on February 18, 2013 and will circulate in tandem with the old series until they are eventually phased out.

SOURCES:
AngolaPress: “New Kwanza banknotes, coins presented”
AllAfrica.com: “Angola: New Banknotes Security Standard Helps Fight Laundering”