Jakarta. Bank Indonesia will start on Monday (19/12) to distribute new banknotes and coins with improved security features aimed at preventing counterfeiting.

"The current [notes and coins] are still valid. Bank Indonesia will be gradually announcing which of them, issued in which years, will be removed from circulation," Suhaedi, money management director at the central bank, said in a statement on Thursday.

He said new banknotes have enhanced security features, such as color shifting metallic foil security patches, latent images and tactile patterns.

With the color shifting feature, a banknote will have different colors when observed from different angles. Latent images, when viewed through a special filter, will show the logo of Bank Indonesia. Tactile marks will help visually impaired people to identify the notes.

Bank Indonesia earlier announced that the new Rp 50,000, Rp 20,000, Rp 10,000, Rp 2,000 and Rp 1,000 bills will feature Indonesian national heroes, such as I Gusti Ngurah Rai and Cut Meutia, who were not present on the old banknotes.

Faces of the country's founding fathers Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta will remain on the Rp 100,000 notes.