Mexico wins again with
2021 IBNS Bank Note of Year Award

The International Bank Note Society (IBNS) announces that its voting membership has again selected the Banco de Mexico to receive its annual prestigious “Bank Note of the Year Award” for 2021. With well over 100 new banknotes released worldwide during 2021, only 20 were deemed of sufficiently new design to be member nominated. Unlike most years when there has been a clear favorite from the start, the vote between first and second place was nip and tuck until the very end when Mexico’s 50 Peso note edged Sao Tome and Principe’s 200 Dobra bill (slave leader Rei Amador, butterflies, sunbird and flower). There was an actual third place tie between Costa Rica’s 10,000 Colones note (abolition of the army leader, rainforest, flora and sloth) and the Bank of England’s 50 Pounder (Queen Elizabeth II with Alan Turing and his war code breaking computer). Rounding out the top eight vote getters were Romania’s 20 Lei (country heroine with crocus), the Royal Bank of Scotland’s 50 Pound (social reformer Flora Stevenson, flowers and birds), China’s 20 Yuan (2022 Winter Olympics theme), and the Cook Islands 3 Dollar (Ina riding shark, fishing canoe and carved wood statue) banknotes.

Now in its 62nd year, the IBNS has approximately 2000 members worldwide. As a nonprofit educational organization its objectives are to promote, stimulate and advance the study, collection and dissemination of information related to all aspects of circulating banknotes. From all significant newly designed and widely circulated banknotes released in 2021, the IBNS membership nominated notes from 19 different countries to place on the ballot. Nominees represented 4 continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America), Central America, 2 island nations, and the Middle East. Past “Bank Note of the Year” winners include Mexico (2020), Aruba (2019), Canada (2018), Switzerland (2017 & 2016), New Zealand (2015), Trinidad & Tobago (2014), Kazakhstan (2013, 2012 & 2011), Uganda (2010), Bermuda (2009), Samoa (2008), Bank of Scotland (2007), Comoros (2006), Faeroe Islands (2005) and Canada (2004).

The Banco de Mexico was again both the printer and issuer of this award-winning design banknote, which is part of the bank’s current G Series first introduced in 2018. The vertical format note is printed on polymer and features Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. The reverse image features a salamander found in Mexico’s ecosystem of lakes and waterways. The design continues to highlight Mexican cultural and historic characteristics with new graphic motifs. Produced by the Banco de Mexico’s new printing complex located in Jalisco, which began operation just before the coronavirus pandemic, the banknote has significantly improved security features which coordinate the transition to a polymer substrate. Polymer banknotes continue to be popular IBNS favorites and are now perennial award winners.

As a repeat winner of the IBNS Bank Note of the Year competition, Mexico’s two award-winning entries should help provide a superb template as other countries consider how they eventually design and promote new banknotes. The Mexico successful design in eye-pleasing purple combines a popular Hispanic legend with an environmental motif. The 50 Peso note is slightly narrower than a 20 Euro note and shorter than U.S. greenbacks. The current exchange value of 50 pesos is USD $2.49 or 2.26 Euros or 1.89 English Pounds as of the date of this announcement.