5 Kyat, Central Bank of Myanmar

Like every note of the series, the face shows no person but a chinthe, the guardian lion of Burmese temples, here printed in brown and blue-green. A chinthe head also forms the watermark, so the same creature appears twice in the paper.

The 5-kyat sits within the first ordinary currency of the renamed state. Burma became Myanmar in 1989 and the Central Bank of Myanmar was established under the 1990 central-bank law, after which it restored a plain decimal ladder of 1, 5, 10 and 20 kyat and larger. This was a quiet repudiation of the Ne Win period, when the 25-, 35- and 75-kyat notes were demonetised without compensation in September 1987 and replaced by 45- and 90-kyat notes — values picked for being divisible by nine, a number the general held lucky. The resulting destruction of savings was among the grievances behind the 1988 democracy uprising.

The reverse depicts a game of chinlone, the Burmese cane-ball sport in which a ring of players keeps a woven rattan ball aloft with feet, knees and head. It is less a contest than a cooperative display of grace, and stands here for everyday Burmese life and custom.