Madagascar, the island nation off the southeast coast of Africa, is completely revamping its currency series in two stages.

The nation’s central bank, Banky Foiben’i Madagasikara, issuef new 20,000-, 10,000-, 5,000-, and 2,000-ariary notes on July 17. The smaller denominations of 1,000-, 500-, 200-, and 100-ariary notes are then scheduled for release Sept. 18. (At current conversion rates, 3,000 ariary are the equivalent of $1.) 

The 20,000-ariary denomination will become the largest note in circulation in Madagascar. The other notes replace those of the same denominations first issued in 2003 and 2004. The new series will maintain the “Madagascar and its Riches” theme of the predecessor series, calling attention to the nation’s economic activities, biodiversity, culture and tourism.

The fallout from the Enhanced Uncirculated Coin set release: Another column in the August 21 weekly issue of Coin World re-veals that while forms of numismatic literature like fixed-price lists were meant to be fleeting, they can actually be quite useful.

The bank said in a statement that “the renewal of existing banknotes that have been in circulation for more than a decade is in line with international practice.” The bank also wants to “pre-empt the development of counterfeiting by providing the newest banknotes with the best and most reliable security features to easily verify their authenticity.” 

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The ariary is divided into five iraimbilanja, making it one of only two nondecimal currencies still in existence. The other is the ouguiya of Mauretania, which is equal to five khoums.