- MailOnline showcases the most exotic notes that are - or were once - in distribution around the world
- The very colourful Costa Rican banknote has long featured the portrait of its elusive native leopard
- New Zealand's latest dollar serves both function and form with its modern, technicolour hologram
By Annabel Fenwick Elliott for MailOnline
Published: | Updated:
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There's a certain small pleasure to be had in examining the first bank note you are handed in a foreign country.
Some of them are so beautifully obscure, perhaps you've bought them home with you and kept them as little paper souvenirs, to accumulate dust as they lie scattered in random dusty drawers.
Here, MailOnline Travel has hunted out some of the most colourful and exotic notes that are - or were once - in distribution around the world.
Some, like the intricate navy seascape found on a 1950s Romanian note, or the stately 1930s lion-embossed Ethiopian currency, are no longer in circulation.
Others, like the latest New Zealand dollar, serve both function and form with their modern, technicolour holograms.
The one thing they all have in common is being hard to part with.
MailOnline has hunted out some of the most colourful and exotic currencies that are, or were once, in distribution around the world - kicking off with this 1991 Costa Rica bank note
A French Polynesian example, decorated with an array of tropical fish found across the cluster of its South Pacific islands
Dating to the 1980s, a blue and pink five shillings banknote from Uganda, depicting a woman harvesting coffee berries
A 1992 Zambian 20 kwacha banknote depicting a large eagle resting on a branch and a dove swooping in from the left
A majestic emerald lion with a crumpled brow gazes out from the wings of this note, the promise of 50 Hong Kong dollars
Dating to 1979, a ceylon grey-hornbill brands the back of this ten rupee note from Sri Lanka - birds being a popular theme
This Ethiopian banknote for 50 thalers dates all the way back to 1932 and features two lions - another beast which makes a regular appearance on currency around the world
New Zealand's latest ten dollar banknote includes, along with a huddle of ducks, new security features thanks to its hologram
Two horses front a rolling mountainous landscape on this Mongolian five tugrik note, which was in circulation between 1990 - 1999
South African rand notes are populated by a colourful array of its 'big five' safari animals - the leopard, water buffalo, lion, elephant and rhino
Stamped 'Cairo 24th January 1945' this note for one Egyptian pound bears the face of King Tut Pharaoh Tutankhamun
Papua New Guinea's ten kina banknote features a bird of paradise with its wings outstretched, in circulation in the 1980s
Iceland's 500 kronas banknote, overwhelmingly pink in colour and bearing the portrait of Jon Sigurosson,the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement
Suriname, a country in South America, showcases a toucan and a logger on its five gulden banknote, this one dating to 1991
An intricate navy seascape illustrates this rather beautiful 1950s Romanian note, equivalent to the sum of one thousand lie
The Iranian Rial banknote for 20,000 rial, branded with the portrait of Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shia Muslim religious leader who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Malaysian five ringgit banknote bears another portrait - this time of Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan - first Supreme Head of State of Malaya, now part of Malaysia
Dirhams banknotes from the United Arab Emirates, isolated on white
Look familiar? The Queen of England once graced the Fijian currency, seen here in the 1980s, but her portrait was removed in 2013
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