BB to issue coins with portrait of Bangabandhu by May

FE Report

The central bank will issue Tk 1.0 and Tk 2.0 coins using portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mijubur Rahman by May this year, officials said Wednesday.

"We're now working to issue 500 million pieces of Tk 1.0 and 300 million pieces of Tk 2.0 coins by May 2010 to meet the growing demand for the coins," an executive director of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.

He also said the central bank has already placed orders to two foreign companies for making the coins.

The BB earlier decided to use Bangabandhu portrait in all bank notes and coins by the end of this year.

"We've already started procurements for printing the new bank notes that would be released by December 2010," the central bank executive said.

He also said many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and India, use portraits of national leaders in their currencies as a gesture of honour.

Currently, seven bank notes along with one currency note are in circulation while three coins are available in the market.