The Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) announced in a statement on Monday that the banknotes for the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland, and the four previously issued zodiac banknotes (Years of Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig) are ready for collection by registered local residents from today until December 19.
According to the Macau Post Daily, each registered resident is required to take his or her valid ID card to the selected bank branches on the selected date to collect the banknotes, the statement said.
According to the statement, each registered resident can obtain 10 of each type of the zodiac banknotes and five of the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland banknotes from the selected bank branches.
The issuing banks are Bank of China (BOC) and Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU), and registered residents can obtain a total of 90 of the banknotes from the two banks, at a cost of 1,000 patacas, the statement noted.
The 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland and the four zodiac banknotes must be collected in “one go”, the statement underlined.
According to a previous government statement in March, the two note-issuing banks issued up to 10 million units of commemorative 20-pataca banknotes in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) on December 20.
Macau’s return to the motherland on December 20, 1999 was a change in administration. While Portugal unilaterally relinquished its claim of sovereignty over Macau shortly after the anti-colonial Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not recognise any foreign sovereignty claims over Hong Kong and Macau, even though it did not exercise its sovereignty over either territory for a period of time. Consequently, Macau’s so-called “handover” 20 years ago meant that China merely resumed the exercise of sovereignty so that no change in sovereignty took place at midnight on December 19, 1999.
December 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
