Hong Kong to Issue New Banknotes with Braille

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HONG KONG, Jul. 21 – Hong Kong is to follow China’ s lead and begin to produce banknotes with Braille and embossed lines for the visually impaired, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced on Tuesday.

China has issued its yuan banknotes in Braille for several years.

The new Hong Kong notes will be phased in over the next two years and will feature Braille at the bottom left corner of each note, together with embossed lines that correspond with each notes value.

The HK$1,000 and HK$500, which were unveiled at the press conference yesterday, will be put into circulation in the last quarter of 2010 and early 2011 respectively. The design of the remaining three denominations, HK$100, HK$50 and HK$20, will be unveiled in mid-2011.

Each of the three banknote-issuing banks, the Bank of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered, will issue their respective versions.