The world's most beautiful currencies

A Costa Rican banknote for five colones. It shows Rafael Yglesia Castro, president of Costa Rica from 1894 to 1902 and a Guaria Morada orchid, Costa Rica's national flower. The current series of banknotes is being replaced throughout 2010.

A Canadian banknote for five dollars, depicting children playing ice hockey. The verse is from a Roch Carrier short story, and reads: "The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places - the school, the church and the skating rink - but our real life was on the skating rink."

A colourful five dollar Australian note. In 1965, Australia adopted the name "royal" for its currency, but it was later dropped in favour of the dollar.

A note for one Egyptian pound. All Egyptian banknotes are bilingual.

A 100 dirham note from the UAE, showing the World Trade Centre. A falcon watermark is placed on all UAE banknotes to help prevent fraud.

A five rupee note from Pakistan. The port depicted is Gwadar port, which opened in 2008.

A five ringgit note from Malaysia showing the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the Petronas Twin Towers, and the Multimedia Super Corrido

A 20 rand note from South Africa. Each in this series of banknotes features a different animal from the "big five".

A colourful, floral 1000 note from French Polynesia, where the currency is the CPF franc.

A 500 baht note from Thailand. This is roughly equivalent to £10 of British money.

A Surinamese ten dollar note. The dollar replaced the Surinamese guilder in January 2004.

A one lempira note from Honduras. The lempira was introduced in 1931, and is named after a 16th century ruler

A New Zealand note for five dollars, depicting New Zealand's native hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin.

A Bahamian one dollar note, showing the Royal Bahamas police force band.

A one dinar note from Libya. The dinar replaced the pound in 1971.

Indian 1000 Rupee note bearing the image of the nation's father, Mohandas K. Gandhi in front and a combine harvester, an offshore oil derrick, a satellite, and a steel furnace, with a young girl working at a computer at the back