and general thickness of the British 1 pound coin. In 2011 the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu ceased to issue 1 and 2 vatu coins, which had become infrequently used due to inflation. The coins are still legal tender. Cash transactions in Vanuatu stores are now rounded to the nearest 5 vatu. As part of a coinage reform, new coins were minted in 2015 by the Royal Australian Mint. The older coins remained in circulation and legal tender. These coins are denominated 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100 vatu. Banknotes On 22 March 1982, notes were introduced by the Central bank of Vanuatu in denominations of 100-, 500-, and 1,000 vatu. These officially replaced franc notes of the former New Hebrides. In 1988 the 100 vatu note was withdrawn from circulation and replaced by a 100 vatu coin. In 1989, 5,000 vatu notes were introduced. In 1993, after a financial restructure, the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu took over paper money issuance and introduced newly designed notes for 500 and 1,000 vatu. 200-vatu notes were first introduced in 1995 to cut down on the amount of 100 vatu coins received in change and the need to meet demand by producing more. In 2011, new 5,000 vatu notes were also issued in polymer. Polymer 10,000 notes were issued as a commemorative issue on 28 July 2010. As of 2013, they are no longer in circulation. On 9 June 2014, the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu introduced a new series of notes printed on polymer, among the new series of notes is a new denomination of 2,000 vatu, in addition to regular 10,000 vatu notes. Dollar Local residents sometimes refer to a notional dollar, equal to 100 vatu, without specifying which country's currency they have in mind. This stems from the period 1966–1973, when the New Hebrides franc was pegged to the Australian dollar at a rate of 100 francs = 1 dollar. Although no relationship currently exists, it simplifies thinking in the larger numbers which a low-value unit causes. For example, the Government's budget of VT 6,000,000,000 is in fact only about US$50,000,000. The concept of this notional dollar was supported by the size of the former 100 vatu coin: at 23 mm, it was comparable to the Australian $1 (25 mm) and the New Zealand $1 (23 mm) but the thickness is equivalent to the twelve-sided British £1 coin. It has now been