New banknotes with difference

PASSING BUCKS: Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund Hillary, and John Key at the launch in Wellington yesterday. PHOTO/NZME

Final versions of new $5 and $10 banknotes have been revealed.

Artistic renditions of all new banknotes were released in November, but the Reserve Bank has been completing work on security features since.

The shape, size and feel are the same, and Sir Edmund Hillary and Kate Sheppard still take pride of place on the $5 and $10 notes respectively.

However, the new notes contain more sophisticated security features, including a large clear window that contains a hologram featuring a fern, map of New Zealand and a bird.

When the note is tilted a rolling bar, that changes colour, flashes across the bird.

The $5 and $10 notes will be released from mid-October, with $20, $50 and $100s likely to follow in April 2016.