Exactly one year ago the news came out about Afghanistan awarding $8 million printing contract to Poland. Afghanistan's central agency National Procurement Authority (NPA) at the time confirmed to having given the contract for printing Afghani currency notes to Polish Security Printing Works (PSPW).
The notes were to be printed in denominations of 10, 20, 50 and 100 afghanis and the total value of printed notes was to be 10 billion Afghanis. Some reports put the numberof notes at exactly 380 million banknotes.
Gets its first batch of notes
Now, the country has got its first batch of new banknotes from Poland. The pics and the design put them pretty much at par with the crisp currency notes anywhere in the world. The bank notes have been produced using the latest technology which ensures more durability. The notes have higher protection against chemical solvents which prevents them from soiling because of their anti-soiling coating Fortis Pro. The first batch was delivered to Kabul last week.
Why the Afghanis?
Reportedly, the local authorities of Afghanistan, especially in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Khost, Ghazni, Kunar, Paktika, Kandahar and Laghman had been increasingly preventing the use of Pakistani rupee. Central Bank of Afghanistan has in the past mentioned about supplying Afghanis (currency) to various provinces so it could be used increasingly.
The afghani is the currency issued by the nation's central bank called Da Afghanistan Bank and it is split into 100 puls, although there are no coins currently in circulation. Last year one U.S. dollar was exchanged for approximately 77 afghanis.
