Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh Bank will launch a regular currency note of Tk 200 denomination and commemorative gold and silver coins worth Tk 100 on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 17.

The central bank’s initiative came aiming to mark the historic moment, said a top official at the bank.

“We’ve taken this initiative as part of commemoration of the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” Sirajul Islam, Executive Director and spokesman of Bangladesh Bank, told UNB.

The first-ever Tk 200 currency note will also come into circulation to mark the occasion, but how many of this Tk-200 notes will be released is yet to be decided, Sirajul Islam said.

He said 1,050 gold coins of Tk 100 and 5,000 silver coins of similar value will also be released.

Sirajul Islam, however, did not give any detail of the new commemorative notes.

At present, there are regular currency notes of Tk 1, Tk 2, Tk 5, Tk 10, Tk 20, Tk 50, Tk 100, Tk 500 and Tk 1,000 are available in the market which were released on different occasions in the past and their designs changed several times.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank also introduced a Tk-40 note to commemorate the “40th Victory Anniversary of Bangladesh” in 2011.

The Tk-40 commemorative note featured a portrait of the Father of the Nation and the National Martyrs’ Memorial in Savar in the front, and six armed men on the back.

Bangladesh Bank introduced a Tk- 60 note to commemorate “60 years of National Movement” on February 15, 2012 while it issued a Tk-25 note to commemorate the 25th anniversary (silver jubilee) of the Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd on January 26, 2013.

On July 8, 2013, Bangladesh Bank issued Tk 100 note to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Bangladesh National Museum.