Last updated: September 2026

What was the first Bangladeshi banknote?

Bangladesh Bank dates its first notes to 4 March 1972. Two denominations appeared that day. The 1 taka note carried the map of Bangladesh in a circular panel with a prominent denominational figure on the right, and a bold denominational figure in Bengali superimposed on a rosette on the back. The 100 taka note carried the map on the left and a portrait on the right.

Both were short lived, which is what makes them interesting. Bangladesh Bank records that the first 100 taka note ceased on 1 May 1973, and that the first 1 taka note ceased on 30 March 1974 (Bangladesh Bank, Taka One Hundred; Bangladesh Bank, Taka One). A note that circulated for barely a year leaves very few high grade survivors, which is the whole reason first issues behave differently from everything that comes after them.

A 10 taka note joined them on 1 September 1972, again with the map of Bangladesh on the front and a riverine rural landscape on the back, and it ceased on 1 May 1973 (Bangladesh Bank, Taka Ten). The map motif is the signature of the first year of the taka, and it disappears from the design language afterwards.

Who issues banknotes in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh Bank. Its currency pages state plainly that Bangladesh Bank has the sole authority to issue banknotes in Bangladesh, and that the bank has so far issued notes in the denominations of Tk 5, Tk 10, Tk 20, Tk 50, Tk 100, Tk 500 and Tk 1,000 in the current series.

The supply side is wider than that list. Bangladesh Bank says it supplies notes of Tk 1,000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1, together with coins of Tk 5, 2, 1, 0.50, 0.25, 0.10, 0.05 and 0.01, and it directs the public to the Director of its Department of Currency Management for exchange of damaged notes (Bangladesh Bank, banknotes).

That structure explains a quirk collectors notice quickly. The small denominations change on their own schedule and often carry quite different design themes from the large ones. The 2 taka note, for example, ran for decades with the Shahid Minar of the Language Movement on one side and the national bird, the doyel, on the other, from its issue on 29 December 1988 through a further issue on 28 January 2007 (Bangladesh Bank, Taka Two). Our page on who prints the world's money covers how issuing banks organise this work.

What did the early taka notes look like?

Mosques and working life. Once the map notes were retired, Bangladesh Bank built its designs around historic mosques and monuments on the fronts and agriculture, rivers and public buildings on the backs, a pairing it kept for roughly thirty years.

The Star Mosque of Dhaka, written on the bank's pages as the TARA Mosque, is the workhorse of the period. It appears on the 100 taka from 1 March 1976, on the 50 taka of the same date, on the 10 taka of 11 October 1976 and on the 500 taka of 15 December 1976. The backs carry a tea garden on the 50, a paddy field with farmers harvesting on the 10, the Lalbagh Fort on the 100 from 15 December 1976 and the Supreme Court building on the 500 (Bangladesh Bank, Taka Fifty; Bangladesh Bank, Taka Five Hundred).

Two designs from this era are worth hunting on their own. The 10 taka of 3 September 1982 shows the Atiya Jame Mosque at Tangail on the front and the spillway of the Kaptai Dam on the back, one of the few dam engravings in South Asian paper money. The 20 taka introduced on 20 August 1979 shows the Choto Sona Mosque on the right and, on the back, four men washing jute in water beside a paddy field (Bangladesh Bank, Taka Twenty). The 1 taka of 3 September 1979 puts the national emblem on the front and three spotted deer on the back, one of the country's few animal designs and a natural companion to our animals on banknotes guide.

Did Bangladesh issue a polymer banknote?

Yes, a 10 taka note on polymer around the turn of the century. The Reserve Bank of Australia's 2001 annual report lists a circulating Bangladesh 10 taka among the polymer note export orders taken by Note Printing Australia, and records Bangladesh Bank as a Securency export customer for the 10 taka in 2001.

The report also records what Bangladesh Bank said at the time: following the successful issue of the 10 taka note printed by Note Printing Australia, it announced that it would progressively change all notes to polymer, with printing done in Bangladesh (Reserve Bank of Australia, Annual Report 2001). Bangladesh Bank's own record of the denomination lists a 10 taka dated 14 December 2000 in the run of issues for that value.

The wholesale switch never happened. Every note Bangladesh Bank has issued since is a conventional substrate, which makes the 10 taka polymer a one-off rather than the start of a family, and a good example of an experiment that did not take. Our comparison of polymer versus paper banknotes explains why several central banks that tried polymer in the late 1990s decided against a full conversion, and Myanmar banknotes covers another regional issuer that stayed with paper.

When did portraits appear on the taka?

Right at the beginning, then intermittently, then across the whole range. Bangladesh Bank's record shows a portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the very first 100 taka of 4 March 1972 and on the 10 taka of 1 September 1972, then a long architectural period, then a portrait family that runs from around 2011 across almost every denomination.

The bank's per denomination pages let you date the change exactly. The 100 taka of 11 August 2011 pairs the portrait with the National Monument on the front and the Star Mosque on the back. The 500 taka of the same date pairs it with the National Monument and puts agriculture on the back. The 50 taka of 7 March 2012 pairs it with the painting Moi deya, described on the later 15 December 2019 issue as the work of Shilpacharza Zainul Abedin. A 200 taka note, 146 by 63 mm, followed on 18 March 2020 with the portrait on both sides alongside a riverbank view of the Bangladeshi countryside (Bangladesh Bank, Taka Two Hundred).

The 1,000 taka, the highest denomination, arrived in the middle of that shift. Bangladesh Bank dates its first 1,000 taka to 27 October 2008, showing the National Shaheed Minar on the front and Curzon Hall of Dhaka University on the back at 160 by 72 mm, before the portrait design took the denomination over from 11 August 2011 (Bangladesh Bank, Taka One Thousand). For the broader subject see portraits on banknotes.

What is on the newest Bangladesh banknotes?

Landmarks, art and natural heritage, with the national flower on the fronts. Bangladesh Bank began issuing a new design family on 1 June 2025, and by February 2026 it covered the 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 taka. Every note in it is described on the bank's pages with a monument or building on the front and a second subject on the back.

The bank's own descriptions read as follows. The 20 taka of 1 June 2025 shows the Kantajew temple at Dinajpur with the national flower water lily, and the Paharpur Buddhist Monastery at Naogaon on the back, at 127 by 60 mm. The 50 taka of the same date shows Ahsan Manzil in Dhaka on the left and the painting Songram by Shilpacharza Zainul Abedin on the back, at 130 by 60 mm. The 1,000 taka of 1 June 2025 shows the National Monument at Savar with the water lily, and the National Parliament Building on the back, at 160 by 70 mm.

The family filled out through the following year. The 100 taka of 12 August 2025 shows the Sixty Dome Mosque at Bagerhat with the water lily and the Sundarban on the back, at 140 by 62 mm. The 500 taka of 4 December 2025 shows the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka with the water lily and the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on the back. The 10 taka of 3 February 2026 shows the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka on the left side, and the bank describes the back simply as a photograph of Graffiti-2024, at 123 by 60 mm.

Bangladesh banknote series at a glance

The table groups the taka by design family. Dates are the issue dates published by Bangladesh Bank for each denomination, and the notes column records material or printer only where a source states it.

Series data from Bangladesh Bank's per denomination currency pages, which publish the issue date, the front and back descriptions and, for many notes, the dimensions in millimetres.

Does Bangladesh Bank have a currency museum?

It does, and it calls itself the only specialised museum on numismatics in Bangladesh. Its stated purpose is to showcase the monetary history of Bangladesh from ancient times to the present alongside the currencies of other countries, and it collects, preserves, displays and documents that material.

The museum grew in stages. A currency museum was first set up in 2009 on the third floor of the Bangladesh Bank main building, a fully equipped modern currency museum was launched in 2012, the foundation stone of the present building was laid on 27 April 2013, and it was inaugurated on 5 October 2013 (Bangladesh Bank, Taka Museum). It also runs seminars, symposiums and research on numismatic history.

For a collector this matters more than it sounds. A central bank that runs a museum tends to publish better reference material, and Bangladesh Bank's currency pages are among the more complete national records online, on a par with the central bank catalogues behind our India banknotes hub.

How do you collect Bangladesh banknotes?

Start with one denomination and work through its issue dates, because Bangladesh Bank publishes them all. Picking the 10 taka or the 100 taka gives you a single thread that runs from 1972 to the present and passes through every design era the country has had, which is a far more satisfying set than one note from each denomination.

Three areas repay attention. The 1972 and 1973 map notes are the scarce end, because several of them were withdrawn within a year or two of issue. The polymer 10 taka is a single interesting outlier rather than a series. The 2025 and 2026 family is the easy end, still available in uncirculated condition and likely to be the notes people ask about for the next decade.

Learn the grading ladder before you spend. Grades run from Uncirculated down through AU, XF, VF, F, VG and G, and the certified market uses a 1 to 70 scale: see our banknote grading guide and graded versus raw banknotes. Catalogue numbers are explained in the guide to Pick numbers, and what determines banknote value covers the rest. Humid storage is the main enemy of South Asian paper, so read how to store banknotes.

Buy from an established dealer that authenticates every note, documents where it came from and stands behind it in writing. Browse the banknotes by country directory to see what has been sourced, and read how to buy world banknotes safely and how to collect world banknotes before you start. The banknote glossary defines the terms you will meet along the way.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.