2020 was supposed to be a celebration of the 50th year of the reign of his late Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said. Instead it was a year of a celebration of his life, a year of mourning and a peaceful transition to His Majesty Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. The Central Bank of Oman went forward and issued a new 50 Rial banknote with the image of the late Sultan, and as described in this column before; it is an amazing banknote with advanced security features and a beautiful design. It had been announced that the series would be completed and issued in 2021. The Bank has released detailed images of these notes. They are all equally beautiful.

Oman 50 Rials | 2020 | Commemorative |
Source: Banknote World

The Central Bank has long had a relationship with German banknote printer – Giesecke & Devrient (G&D). Oman’s banknotes have showcased many of the best features, substrates and design capabilities that G&D has to offer. 

New Oman Rial Banknote Series | 2021 |
Source: Central Bank of Oman

The New Oman Banknotes

The new 5 and 20 Rial banknotes continue to use of purple, gold and green as their color scheme. The 1, 5 and 20 Rial uses the same portrait, but the 20 Rial has images of construction, roads and an airport to highlight technological progress in Oman. The note appears to be printed on G&D’s Hybrid substrate so it is paper but has a window. That window features a gold overt feature which is visible on both sides but, with different images. The denomination uses a SICPA SPARK live feature in green which complements the windowed thread which appears to be G&D’s Galaxy color shifting technology.

 The 5 Rial has a similar design but uses purple overt effects. The 1 rial has a primary color of red and uses the Oman country Emblem as its primary image. The background images focuse on historical elements. This note does not appear to have a window, but still has an interesting, windowed thread. The ½ rial and 100 Biasa have similar color schemes but do not have a windowed thread. The ½ rial has images of 2 animals on the reverse.

This entire series might be one of the best series ever. It is cohesively designed with complimentary colors and attractive, secure overt effects. It seems we are in a golden age of banknote designing. There are great overt effects from multiple companies, new colors, improved printable substrates and the ability to create a series with a singular theme stitching them together but with enough differences to stand on their own.

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