Hinching

Figure 1. AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin

This Friday, Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank Malaysia) unveiled a new design for the MYR50 banknote — the first denomination of the Fourth Series of Malaysian currency notes with a host of new security features.

Is a new design necessary? Well, yes. Besides to commemorate Malaysia’s 5oth Anniversary of Independence, its purpose is to have a new design reflect the nation’s economic progress and more importantly, implement new security features such as the ‘anti-photocopy’ feature.

Figure 2. Grid layout of the new ‘Malaysia’s 50th Anniversary of Independence’ RM50 note

Design-wise, I love the idea of the Batik textile being incorporated into the design but find the new hibiscus flower more of an overkill. The hibiscus — the national flower seems like it was placed without much thought sandwiching the denomination numeral between the flower and the illustration portrait.

For the visually-impaired, the numerals should be a bit tad bigger. The choice of the ‘bold’ weight aids in readability. After all, a currency design needs to be practical and easily distinguishable which raises why is the current design featuring a different shade of colour in the front and back?

The new design features the palm oil bloom and Malaysia’s first Prime Minister declaring ‘Merdeka!’ (Independence!). No doubt we might be seeing an ‘astronaut-inspired‘ design in one of the denominations in the fourth series to be implemented gradually in 2008.

Can you guess what might be the other illustrations on the other denominations in the new fourth series before they are released?