Artists, designers and students can be part of the State Bank of Pakistan’s efforts to design new currency notes.

“To have innovative and thematic design ideas for the new series banknotes, an art competition is being organised,” the central bank said in a statement on Tuesday.

The new designs would help the government to ensure beauty with international security features amid increasing complaints of counterfeit notes.

The SBP, which has initiated the process for issuance of a new banknote series, said that participants might develop the designs on the themes, including but not limited to, “social and cultural identities, demographic diversity, climate change and environment protection, economic development, natural landscapes, architectural heritage and national symbols.”

Designs should be submitted to the SBP Finance Department’s director by March 11.

Guidelines

• Participants can share the design of all the seven existing denominations (Rs10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000) or fewer denominations based on their choice.

• The design for each banknote shall be presented in hard copy on white paper along with a write-up of not more than a hundred words in English or Urdu, explaining the design and its theme.

• Colours of each banknote denomination should be unique and easily distinguishable.

• A jury comprising reputed artists will evaluate the designs and recommend the top six designs for each denomination to the SBP for picking the top three designs of each denomination.

• The first, second and third designs of each denomination will be given the prize of Rs1,000,000, Rs500,000, and Rs300,000 respectively.

• Participants shall ensure that their submitted designs are free from any copyright claims and/or any liabilities.

“The designs submitted in the art competition will be the sole property of the SBP and the SBP will be at liberty to share the design or any modification thereof with the banknote designers for the purpose of banknotes designing, without any extra compensation,” it said.