26-04-2025
Small detail reveals cashless reality hidden on Aussie $10 note: 'Not using them'
While millions of new coins are pumped out by the Royal Australian Mint every year, notes are a different story. Interestingly, there hasn't been a new $10 note printed since the huge facelift it received back in 2017.
The new-look tenner was upgraded with new security features nearly eight years ago to stop it from being counterfeited. But that's the last time they were printed en masse, and The History of Money's Joel Kandiah has pointed out how you can check.
"Look at the first two digits of the serial number on the back of a new $10 note. That's the year your note was printed," he said.
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Australian notes have a serial number system that helps keep track of certain details.
Each banknote on a given sheet, which can contain as many as 54 notes each, will be given a different letter prefix like AA or AB.
The first two numbers of the prefix will indicate what year the banknote was new banknotes on a singular sheet will also have the same seven-digit suffix, which decreases by one from one sheet to the next.
Anytime you get a tenner, check the serial number and it will likely show a 17 or lower, which indicates it was printed in 2017.
But interestingly, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) latest data, the humble $10 had the largest amount of growth in circulation compared to all the other denominations recently:
The $5 had a 1.2 per cent lift in circulation in the 2023-2024 financial year
2.8 per cent lift for $10 notes
0.6 per cent reduction for $20 notes
2.1 per cent reduction for $50 notes
0.9 per cent lift for $100 notes
The $10 note's 2.8 per cent lift is just above the 10-year average of 2.5 per cent.
It's also a huge turnaround from the 0.2 per cent reduction recorded in the prior financial year.
That's despite the RBA data showing every denomination has had new notes printed since 2018 except for the tenner.
The RBA said banknote circulation increased "sharply" due to COVID, with $7.7 billion in $50 and $100 notes purchased by banks to meet "public demand".
The central bank added that the pandemic caused a seismic shift in the way Aussies use cash.
"The strong demand for high-denomination banknotes suggests an increased desire in the community to hold banknotes as a precaution or store of wealth during the pandemic," the RBA noted.
"It also highlights the changing role of cash, with cash increasingly being used for such purposes rather than for transactions.
"The demand for the lower denominations partially recovered during 2021-22 as pandemic-related impacts on in-person transactions reduced somewhat.
"Nevertheless, it is expected that the pandemic will have had a lasting effect on cash usage."
The two financial years spanning 2022-24 marked the lowest number of banknote issuance from the RBA in recent years.
The last financial year saw around $3.6 billion banknotes issued, which is about 40 per cent of a typical year's gross issuance.
Kandiah believes the reason why notes aren't being printed is "because people aren't using them anymore".
He highlighted RBA figures that showed cash usage has dropped from around 70 per cent in 2007 to just 13 per cent in 2022.
That's predicted to fall to just 4 per cent by 2030.
This is because people overwhelmingly prefer to use digital methods to pay for things like a card or a smart device like your phone or in to access your portfolio
