Production

Guardian

Guardian

Guardian is the trade name of the polymer substrate — biaxially oriented polypropylene — developed with the Reserve Bank of Australia and UCB for plastic banknotes. It is not Tyvek, the experimental non-woven of the 1980s. It is not varnished cotton paper. Guardian substrate takes a clear window, offset and intaglio on plastic, and a longer life in wet circulation. Australia put it on the 1988 $10; from there it passed to dozens of issuing banks.

The millennium 100-yuan (Pick 902), the People’s Republic’s first polymer note, uses Guardian: the record cites that development with the RBA and UCB, serial J04445744, Temple of Heaven window. Bank Negara Malaysia’s RM5 (Pick 52a, 2012) and the Bank of Canada Frontiers $5 (Pick 106b, 2013) belong to the same substrate family, each with its window and serial — AA 1955984 and HBM0828003. The Bank of England £5 (Pick 394) has been ordinary-circulation polymer since 2016, serial AC04 879241. None of those records invents a printage for the prefix.

Guardian does not turn a commemorative into everyday tender: the 2000 100-yuan is a memorial. It does not remove the need for a watermark on paper; they are different substrates. A crumpled Guardian note “remembers” more than cotton, but it scratches and delaminates if abused. This collection shows them in sleeves, unslabbed, unless the record says otherwise. The glossary term points to those pieces and to the polymer article, not to generic advertising plastic.

Guardian is a substrate brand, not an issuer. A Guardian note still carries Pick, serial, and bank. The Churchill £5 is cited in the polymer article; here China, Malaysia, and Canada are enough to show the plastic on three continents, each with its window and already published serial.

See also: Polymer , Tyvek , Substrate , Clear window

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