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2004: Madagascar: Banknote: 100 Ariary (500 Francs Malgache)

In issue 73 of Speleophilately International magazine (March 2005) sent the editor a real banknote from Madagascar to subscribers, a gift from Greg Middleton (Tasmania). A banknote is depicting one the most fascinating karst-area's of this world. Here the explanation
 

Brief from Greg Middleton to Jan Paul van der Pas

On 25 Nov. 2004, Madagascar issued 2 new banknotes, 100 Ariary (500 Francs Malgache) and 200 Ariary (1000 MGF). Yawn... "So what?", you may ask, "new notes are issued somewhere nearly every day". True, and the 200 is a yawn ... not of any special interest, but the 100 is different. I suspect it may well be the world's first dual-sided karst note !!

The recto features the World Heritage-listed Tsingy de Bemeraha pinnacle karst; the verso features "Le Pain de Sucre de la Baie de Diego Suarez", a steep-sided karst island in the harbour of Diego Suarez.

"Sugar-loaf is a bit of an exaggeration but it is quite spectacular; it contains caves with bat roosts but is fady (taboo) so is not disturbed (no doubt to the benefit of bath the caves and the bats).

I suspect this note may also be in the running for the world's lowest-value note on current issue. 100 Ar equates almost exactly to US$ 0.05 or about EURO .04. (Incidentally, from - 1 Jan 2005 Madagascar will abandon its dual currency. They think if it's good enough for France to abandon the Franc, they can abandon the Franc Malgache. Henceforth all transactions are to be denoted in the uniquely Madagascan Ariary (MGA). This win result in an effective "devaluation" of 5 times, in a situation where 5,000 times would have been more appropriate! Unbelievably, one Ariary (value US$0.0005) will be subdivided by 5 into the "Iraimbilanja" - now that's got to be the world's lowest value monetary unit; 1 Iraimbilanja = US$0.0001. Believe it or not, there is a 1 Iraimbilanja coin (denoted as 1MGF).

Perhaps I shouldn't have told you the value because my gift will be revealed as not very generous, but anyway, I am sending you 100 of these notes with the suggestion that you may like to include one in each of the next issue of SI. If 100 is not enough you can leave them out of ones that go to libraries and institutions - or I could arrange for more to be sent to you (though postage out, of Mada is a little uncertain!) Anyway, I hope the package reaches you safely from Australia and you enjoy the note!