Revealed: Your new brighter bank notes

Final versions of new $5 and $10 banknotes have been revealed - with brighter colours, but the same famous faces and flora and fauna design features.

Artistic renditions of all new banknotes were released in November, but the Reserve Bank has been completing work on security features since, meaning the final versions released today are different.

The shape, size and feel of the new notes remains the same, and Sir Edmund Hillary and Kate Sheppard still take pride of place on the $5 and $10 notes respectively.

However, the new notes contain more sophisticated security features, including:

• A large clear window that contains a hologram featuring a fern, map of New Zealand, and the same bird that features on the left-hand side of the note.

• When the note is tilted a rolling bar, that changes colour, flashes across the bird. On the reverse of the note, in the same position, a similar effect can be seen in the fern window.

• If the notes are held up to the light, coloured irregular shapes on the front and back combine like puzzle pieces to show the note's denomination.

• Raised ink features on both sides of the notes, including the words "Reserve Bank of New Zealand Te Putea Matua" and "New Zealand Aotearoa".

All banknotes are being redesigned and rolled-out progressively, by denomination.

The $5 and $10 notes will be released from mid-October, with the $20, $50 and $100s likely released in April 2016.

The new notes, which will be called Series 7, will co-circulate with the current notes for a period of time and both sets will be legal tender.

Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler launched the $5 and $10 notes this morning at a function in Wellington attended by Prime Minister John Key.