Architect of financial and tourism to be replaced by Queeb Elizabeth 11

By MINDELL SMALL,Guardian Staff Reporter,mindell@nasguard.com

Sir Stafford Sands will be taken off the front of the $10 bill when the government reissues its bank notes over a six-to-eight-year period starting on Aug. 3.

The architect of The Bahamas' financial services and tourism sectors will be replaced with Queen Elizabeth II.

When the former Free National Movement government issued the notes featuring Sir Stafford, it caused controversy as the white Bahamian economist was also branded a racist by many as he left the country and vowed never to return when a black majority government first came to power in 1967.

Derek Rolle, Assistant manager of The Central Bank of The Bahamas, told The Guardian Tuesday that he was not certain why the $10 note was chosen first for reprinting or why its image was being changed.

"I don't know why. The government tells us who they want on the note and we just put it on. They don't give us a reason," he said.

"But we've taken the opportunity to redesign the entire family of notes and the $10.00 note is the first one in the new family that we're calling CRISP."

The 2005 $10 banknote will circulate concurrently with the existing series, until the old banknotes are phased out of circulation.

Mr Rolle added that the government plans to issue a new note approximately every year until the entire family of notes are complete.

"The $20 and the $50 are the next two that are scheduled for release and the government has not changed the figurehead of those," he said.

Counterfeit resistant

Mr Rolle further noted that the new notes would be more resistant to counterfeiting than the existing.

"They will be counterfeit resistant because nothing is really counterfeit proof. It's a combination of all the different security features, the way they are placed and how they are specifically integrated for each particular denomination which makes them resistant," he said.

Pretty design

The new $10 notes are dark blue, dark green, and maroon, bearing an elliptical border design on the front surrounding a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Additionally the series includes the signature of the Central Bank Governor.

The notes are legal tender under the Central Bank of The Bahamas Act 2000. A watermark of Queen Elizabeth II and the numeral 10 appears on the left and a map of The Bahamas in the centre.

At the back is a picture depicting Hope Town, Abaco, surrounded by various images, which include, on the left, a rainbow-arc flanked by the numeral $10 and the words "Ten Dollars," above, the words "The Central Bank of The Bahamas," and on the bottom centre, the coat-of-arms of The Bahamas.