A Curly Tale About New K20 Note

The people of Yangoru, a small settlement in Northern Papua New Guinea, object to the pig’s head which appears on the country’s newest currency note, the K2O. They told the Prime Minister, Mr Somare they were hanging their heads in shame over the design.

The reason? The world at large will think PNG is a country inhabited solely by pigs and other animals or governed by pigs anyway.

“There should be a man’s face on the money a government leader someone like you,” the president of the Yangoru Coun cil, Mr Walandu, told Mr Somare, and urged withdrawal

The K2O, a twenty-kina note just issued (it’s worth about SA23) shows the head of a boar, symbolic of wealth in some parts of PNG.

Councillors and other people urged Mr So mare to withdraw the note from circulation before the world became convinced that PNG was a land of pigs.

Mr Somare told the people it was too late to withdraw the new note “but in any event it’s the value that matters, not the decoration” he added.

Mr Somare added that PNG had reason to be proud of the stability which its currency had achieved.