BACK – 5 GHANA CEDIS
THE FIVE GHANA CEDIS
COMMEMORATIVE BANKNOTE
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6. I NTAGLIO VIGNET TE
The intaglio relief can be
detected by touching.
7. QR CODE
Readable by a mobile phone app,
which leads to a special Bank of Ghana
website that explains the details of the
national banknotes.
8. IRI DESC E NT BAN D
Becomes visible when holding the note
at an angle.
BANK OF GHANA
One Thorpe Road, P.O. Box GP 2674, Accra
Telephone: 030-2666174-6
Email: [email protected]
Website: bog.gov.gh
Branches: Hohoe, Kumasi, Sunyani, Tamale, Takoradi
CELEBRATING 60 YEARS OF
CENTRAL BANKING IN GHANA
1957 – 2017
FRONT – 5 GHANA CEDIS
BANK OF GHANA
COMMEMORATIVE 5 GHANA CEDIS
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1. SECURIT Y THREAD
When the note is tilted the Black Star motif
makes a pulsing motion and the figure 5 in
the ribbon seems to move up and down.
2. WATE RMARK
Visible from both sides when holding
the banknote up to the light.
3. TACTILE MARKS
Tactile marks to assist the
visually impaired.
4. I NTAGLIO PORTRAIT
Detect the intaglio relief by touching.
5. OPTICALLY VARIABLE INK
The five turns from green to blue
colour when flicking the banknote.
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‘And thus Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever’, proclaimed founding Prime Minister Dr Kwame
Nkrumah in the small hours of 6th March 1957
as he ushered sub-Saharan Africa’s first modern
nation state into independence. Two days earlier,
on Monday 4th March, the Bank of Ghana was
founded, breaking away from the colonial yoke of
the four-state West African Currency Board. Nigeria
followed Ghana a year later, and Sierra Leone left
in 1963. The Board was finally wound up when The
Gambia established its own central bank in 1971.
To celebrate 60 years of central banking the Bank
of Ghana is issuing a commemorative banknote, in
the denomination of 5 Ghana Cedis. This banknote is
legal tender for 5 Ghana Cedis in exactly the same
way as the existing 5 Ghana Cedis note. It is in a
new smaller size for ease of handling and contains a
host of modern security and informational features.
Both notes will circulate simultaneously and the old
note remains equally valid as currency.
The new banknote displays an engraved portrait of
Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey, the famous educationalist, missionary and teacher. Born in 1875 at Anomabu and passing away in New Jersey, USA 52 years
later, Dr Aggrey was the first son of Ghana to build
a bridge between the African continent and North
America. One of his most well known observations
was that... ’If you educate a man you simply educate
an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation’.
The commemorative note is coloured blue, like the
existing 5 Ghana Cedis note, and the reverse side
features a seaborne oil-drilling rig in the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) offshore field. Also
illustrated are themes revered in Ghana: the cocoa
pod, the coconut, cowrie shells once used as cash,
and Adinkra symbolism including Gye Nyame and
the clenched fist.
A new and easy security device allows immediate verification that the banknote is genuine: the
windowed security ribbon on the front of the note
contains a moving image. When the note is tilted
the Black Star motif makes a pulsing motion and the
figure 5 in the ribbon seems to move up and down.
If the image does not move then the note is not
genuine.
For the first time in Ghana the banknote has a QR
(Quick Response) code, readable by a mobile
phone app, which leads instantly to a special Bank
of Ghana website that explains the details of this
and other national banknotes.
“ Only the best is good enough for Africa… My
people of Africa, we were created in the image of
God, but men have made us think we are chickens,
and we still think we are, but we are eagles. Stretch
forth your wings and fly! Don’t be content with food
of chickens ”.
– Dr. J.E. Kwegyir Aggrey