The Bird Series of currency notes is the second set of notes to be issued for circulation in Singapore. Issued in the years 1976 to 1984, it has nine denominations, the same number as in the Orchid Series, albeit the $25 note was replaced by the $20 note.
Each note features a bird on the right side of the note's front, a theme selected to represent a young Singapore "ever ready to take flight to greater heights". Standard on each note, is the Coat of Arms, a lion head watermark, and the signature of the Minister for Finance and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore, on the front of the note. As an added security feature, all notes have a vertically embedded security thread, while the $1,000 and $10,000 notes have two.
| 2nd Series - Bird Series (1976–1984) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Value | Dimensions | Main Colour | Description | Date of issue | ||||
| Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | Watermark | |||||
| $1 | 125 mm x 63 mm | Blue | Black-naped Tern | National Day parade | Lion's head | 6 August 1976 | |||
| $5 | 133 mm x 66 mm | Green | Red-whiskered Bulbul | Cable cars and aerial view of the harbour | |||||
| $10 | 141 mm x 69 mm | Red | White-collared Kingfisher | Garden city with high rise public housing in background | |||||
| $20 | 149 mm x 72 mm | Brown | Yellow-breasted Sunbird | Changi International Airport Complex with the Concorde in the foreground | 6 August 1979 | ||||
| $50 | 157 mm x 75 mm | Blue | White-rumped Shama | School band on parade | 6 August 1976 | ||||
| $100 | 165 mm x 78 mm | Blue | Blue-throated Bee-eater | Dancers of various ethnic groups | 1 February 1977 | ||||
| $500 | 181 mm x 84 mm | Green | Black-naped Oriole | Oil refinery | |||||
| $1000 | 197 mm x 90 mm | Purple | Brahminy Kite | Container Terminal | 7 August 1978 | ||||
| $10,000 | 203 mm × 133 mm | Green | White-bellied Sea-Eagle | Two scenes of the Singapore River | 1 February 1980 | ||||
Famous quotes containing the words bird, series, currency and/or notes:
“I’ll be a new bird with the head of an ass,
Two pigs’ feet, two men’s feet, and two of a hen”
—Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849)
“A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“There is no legislation—I care not what it is—tariff, railroads, corporations, or of a general political character, that all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the National Monetary Commission plan.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“A little black thing among the snow
Crying “’weep, ‘weep,” in notes of woe!
“Where are thy father & mother? say?”
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)