The Portrait notes are the fourth series of currency notes launched on 9 September 1999. The new series marks the first time a portrait has been featured as its main design theme. The portrait of Singapore's first President, the late Encik Yusof Bin Ishak was chosen in honour of his invaluable contribution towards nation building.
The front of all the notes feature the Singapore Arms, a watermark of the portrait, the Singapore Lion symbol, the word Singapore in the four official languages, as well as the signature and seal of the Chairman, BCCS or Chairman, MAS. The back of each denomination features a unique theme based on the first President's biography. The themes are Education, Garden City, Sports, Arts, Youth, Government and Economics.
The Portrait series has to strike a balance between simplicity and clarity in design on one hand and sophistication in security features on the other. At the same time, the public-recognition security features must be effective and easy for users to recognise and remember. To help meet these requirements, a standard designing approach was adopted across all denominations of the Portrait series.

Click on the links above to view the description and images of each denomination.