The Central Bank of Suriname announces that the new banknotes that had been ordered for the exchange of the Surinamese guilder into the Surinamese dollar shall be delivered from abroad with a delay. Consequently, against expectations, the banknotes of 5 dollar and higher will not be available yet on January 1, 2004.
The introduction of the Surinamese dollar will, nevertheless, be on January 1, 2004, as planned. In pursuance of the statutory regulations, as of that date the dollar issued by our monetary authorities shall be our new unit of account and our new legal instrument of payment in the Republic of Suriname.

Banknotes
As of January 1, 2004, all guilder notes in circulation will automatically get the status of Surinamese dollar notes. This (automatic) conversion has been laid down by law. The amount that they will represent equals their face value divided by 1000. The adjoining table precisely indicates which dollar value corresponds with a specific guilder note.   It will thus be possible to use the existing guilder banknotes to make dollar payments.  Specific regulations have been laid down to round off banknotes ending in the number 5, because their dollar value ends in ½ cent.

Currency notes and coins
In addition to banknotes there are also currency notes in circulation in Suriname. These are the 1 guilder and the 2½ guilder notes that have been issued by the Minister of Finance. The new currency notes that will be introduced look slightly different than the existing ones, but the most important difference is that the name “guilder” has been changed into the name “dollar”. Their values have remained the same. The existing coins of 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 25 cent, 100 cent and 250 cent do not have to be exchanged. They maintain their value and can simply be used again.

Exchanging currency notes and banknotes with lower face values
Up to now it is expected that the new currency notes will be received timely in December 2003.  The exchange of the old currency notes of 1 guilder and 2½ guilders can therefore be started immediately following January 1, 2004. Upon exchanging each guilder note will be replaced with a 1-dollar note, or one or more coins of jointly 100 cent. Similarly, one will receive a 2½-dollar note or one or more coins of jointly 250 cent for each 2½ guilders note.
Immediately following January 1, 2004, the banknotes of 2000 guilders and lower up to the 5-guilder note can be exchanged as well.

One will then receive currency notes and coins for these banknotes, such as mentioned in the adjoining table.
Coins of ½ cent do not occur anymore. Notes of 5 guilders and 25 guilders must then be exchanged in pairs (2 to 2) or in combination with other notes, so that ½ cents are rounded off to full cents.

Information
The information material that the Bank will distribute could not incorporate the late delivery of the new banknotes. Upon composing the material it was entirely unknown that the delivery would be late. In good faith we assumed that all new Surinamese dollar notes would arrive in December 2003, as planned. Everyone is requested to take into consideration the situation that has been created, when studying our information brochure and the folder.

The Central Bank of Suriname is giving it all to have the Surinamese dollar notes delivered as soon as possible. Those are the notes of 5 dollars, 10 dollars, 20 dollars, 50 dollars and 100 dollars. After having received these, the exchanging of the guilder notes of 5000, 10000 and 25000 guilders will forthwith be announced.

The Bank apologizes for the inconvenience ensuing from the fact that its dollar notes will not be available on January 1, 2004.

Paramaribo, December 1, 2003
The Central Bank of Suriname,
André E. Telting,
President