Bicentennial $20 note: All citizens, PRs who applied get full quantity

All Singaporean citizens and permanent residents who applied for the Singapore Bicentennial $20 commemorative note were allocated the full quantity requested, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said yesterday.

More than 200,000 applications for around 1.8 million pieces of the note were received, MAS said.

Successful applicants will receive an SMS notification by tomorrow, indicating the number of notes allocated and the bank branch to exchange the notes at.

The exchange period at the banks is from Nov 4 to 18.

Applicants who opted to exchange their notes at DBS and POSB branches will have up to Nov 30 to do so. The usual operating hours apply.

After the exchange period for online applicants, the remaining notes will be available to the public at the bank branches.

Each person may exchange up to 10 notes per transaction.

The notes feature Singapore's pioneers such as philanthropist Tan Kah Kee and writer Munshi Abdullah. They also feature two national monuments, the former Supreme Court and City Hall, now the National Gallery Singapore.

They were launched on June 5 by President Halimah Yacob at the Istana's Hari Raya Puasa open house.

The $20 note received strong public interest. The first two million notes were exchanged at banks within a week of the launch.

Long queues were seen at bank branches islandwide with listings appearing online at marked-up prices, with some being offered for sale online for as much as $1,688 for five pieces.

MAS subsequently announced in June that it would issue another two million pieces to meet strong demand.