20 Kyat, Central Bank of Myanmar

Printed in deep olive-green, the obverse shows the series chinthe, the seated guardian lion of Burmese temples, with a bust of the chinthe over the value forming the watermark. As on the rest of the series, there is no portrait of a person.

The 20-kyat, introduced in 1994, belongs to the decimal currency of the renamed state. Burma was renamed Myanmar in 1989 and the Central Bank of Myanmar was set up under the 1990 central-bank law, restoring a plain run of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 kyat. These notes undid the oddities of the Ne Win years, when the 25-, 35- and 75-kyat notes were demonetised without warning in September 1987 and 45- and 90-kyat notes — denominations divisible by nine, Ne Win's lucky number — were issued in their place. The lost savings from that cancellation were among the sparks of the 1988 uprising.

The reverse shows the elephant fountain in People's Park, Yangon, an ornamental monument of sculpted elephants spouting water, set near the Royal Lake. It stands as a civic emblem of the capital rather than a scene of labour.