Angola is a country in south-central Africa. It is a former Portuguese colony, has natural resources such as oil and diamonds. Currency of Angola is the Kwamza.

Angola (2004) 500 Kwanzas (front)

Forex 1 USD = 75 AOA (Angola Kwanza) Bloomberg 04 may 2008

Angola (2004) 500 Kwanzas (front)

Belgium's 200 Franc (before Euro) featured Adolphe Sax, founder of the saxophone, the instrument which took after his name, sometime in 1840s.

Belgium (front) - 1995 200 Franc - portrait of Adolphe Sax

Quote Wikipedia "The period around 1840 saw Sax inventing the clarinette-bourdon, an early (and unsuccessful) design of contrabass clarinet. Most significantly, at this time he developed the instrument for which he is now best known, the saxophone, patented in 1846.....

China was the first country in the world to use paper money.

China - Jiao Zi

China - Hui Zhi

The history of Jiaozi dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).

In March 1970, Jason Islands part of the Falkland Islands were bought by Len Hill. Around 1979 Len once issued banknotes in name of 'Jason Islands' to funds for conservation. The notes have validity to 31 Dec 1979 and by "Len Hill - Administrator".

Jason Islands (1979) 20 Pounds

(Images: courtesy Ron Wise World of Banknotes.)

It seems the printing of banknotes is very secretive as the title of 2 books suggest (1) Bender, Klaus: Moneymakers. The Secret World of Banknote Printing and (2) Terry Bloom: The Brotherhood of Money. The Secret World of Banknote Printers. Just google and you can get them from Amazon.

The "leading global provider of security inks.. for most of the world's banknotes..." is SICPA, a Switzerland company run by the Amon family.

The lari is the currency of Georgia. It is divided into 100 tetri. The name lari is an old Georgian word denoting a hoard, property, while tetri is an old Georgian monetary term used from the thirteenth century.

Front : Georgia (2002) 2 Lari

Back : Georgia (2002) 2 Lari

RFID applications has been increasing and used for tracking luggages, trucking, lot msnufacturing, containers, parking lots. And even in banknotes? It seems the Euro and Yen central bank authorities did consider using RFID in banknotes but for bigger denominations like Euro 500 bill or Yen 10,000 banknote for cost reasons of course.

Vanuatu's about 3 hours flight from Sydney,Australia. It comprises 83 islands, about 200,000+ population and is an independent nation with own central bank and currency vatu. It's where bungee jumping got its idea from when movie maker went there and saw native islanders jumping from platform with vines tied to ankles.

Vanuatu (1995) 200 Vatu - Commemorative Note

The currency of Swaziland is lilangeni and the plural is emalangeni, issued by the Central Bank of Swaziland. Currency code is SZL and exchange rate is 1 USD = 7.87 SZL as at 16-04-2008. The lilangeni is tied to the South African rand one-to-one.

Swaziland (1997) 10 Emalangeni - Portrait of King Mswati