K500 — Five Hundred Kyat
The artwork
Front: A seated chinthe — the mythical leogryph that guards the stairways of Burmese pagodas — rendered in fine engraved line, mane scaled like armour, one forepaw resting on a plinth of stylised foliage. The Burmese header reads Central Bank of Myanmar, with the value spelled out in Burmese script at centre and the numeral ၅၀၀ in the ornamental corner panels. Latin 500 top left, red serial with a two-letter prefix lower right.
Back: An artisans' scene in warm brown: a crowned royal figure in full court dress stands on a timber platform while craftsmen kneel and work around him, one with a mallet, another shaping the robe. Behind, a crucible smokes under a thatched canopy; to the right a stilted pavilion and a porter with shoulder-yoke baskets. English legends above and below — CENTRAL BANK OF MYANMAR, FIVE HUNDRED KYATS — on violet bands.
In circulation
Introduced in 1994 as part of the Central Bank of Myanmar's decimal series that replaced the odd 45 and 90 kyat denominations of the 1980s. It circulated heavily through the 1990s and 2000s before a redesigned 500 kyat appeared in the 2000s, and while inflation and the larger 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 kyat notes have long since eclipsed it, the note was never demonetised.
Details
- IssuerCentral Bank of Myanmar (မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်ဗဟိုဘဏ်)
- CurrencyKyat (K)
- DenominationFive Hundred Kyat
- Collectedon the Burma journey, 2001
- Series1994 chinthe issue
- SignatureNone — notes of this series carry no signatures or titles
- SecurityRed serial, prefix CJ, in Latin letters and figures