The first award was presented to the National Bank of Kazakhstan for the new high denomination 20,000 tenge banknote.
Like other notes in the Kazakh series, the imaginatively-designed note is vertically-orientated and was introduced in December 2015. It is the world’s first circulating banknote to be produced on Durasafe® – the composite paper-polymer-paper substrate from Swiss papermaker Landqart.

The three-layer substrate has enabled a number of unique features to be created. Each layer is a different colour on either side, and each of the two paper layers have different security fibres.

The note also features four windows, all formed in either one or both of the outer paper layers. As well as offset, intaglio, and silkscreen OVI®, a SPARK® Dynamic motif, combining silkscreen and intaglio blind embossing, was applied.

The design features the Kazakh Eli monument to Kazakhstan’s independence, the winged horse and the Mangilik El triumphal arch as well as a contour map of Kazakhstan, and a panorama of the capital, Almaty, on the reverse.

The award was presented to Dastan Mashrapov of the National Bank of Kazakhstan and Andrey Shevchenko from the Banknote Factory of the National Bank.