Vanuatu banknotes

The Vanuatu vatu has no fractional unit: there are no cents or subdivisions of any kind. It is one of the very few currencies in the world with a single unit, just like the Japanese yen.

Kastom art

The banknotes feature kastom, the set of pre-colonial Melanesian traditions: ceremonial masks, carved vertical drums, curved-tusk pigs—which were currency before the vatu—and ritual dances. Few examples of world banknotes are as ethnographic.

A country with two colonizers at once

Until 1980, Vanuatu was a Franco-British condominium: two simultaneous colonial administrations, with two legal systems and two currencies circulating in parallel. There is no other case like it, which explains why its early issues are so peculiar.

What you will find here

Vatu with Pick reference and actual condition, including polymer issues. Within Oceania, it is one of the least seen territories in Europe.

Shipping

Protected and tracked from Spain.

If you are interested in this area, combine with the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.