Pensioner’s N$100 note not fake 0 The Bank of Namibia (BoN) says a suspected false N$100 note that made its way into the pension payout of Annelise van der Merwe at Maltahöhe in August was not counterfeit but an old banknote issued in 1993. After an article on the suspect banknote was published, the BoN contacted Van der Merwe’s family to inspect the note.
The central bank confirmed that it is a genuine note, whose security features differ from the new generation of N$100 banknotes.
The BoN did not say how such an old banknote remained in circulation.
The BoN said the signature on the old banknote is that of Swedish national E. Karlsson, who was the bank’s governor from September 1991 to April 1993.
The bank stressed that people who suspect that they have received counterfeit banknotes should immediately report it to the police or to the bank.
Namibian Sun published an article in which Van der Merwe’s family claimed that a counterfeit N$100 banknote had been found in her pension payout received at the Maltahöhe post office. A cashier at Shoprite-Checkers in Windhoek’s Maerua Mall spotted the suspicious-looking note when Van der Merwe offered it as payment.
NamPost and Standard Bank at Mariental had vehemently denied ever having distributed counterfeit notes in monthly pension payouts.
The postmaster at Maltahöhe, Claire Januarie, did admit that staff at the post office previously had come across false N$200 notes among pension monies, which she said they had refunded to the affected pensioners.