New Zealand $5 bill, designed by Ottawa master engraver, named world's best

The world's best bill of2015 New Zealand's $5 note was designed by a master engraver in Ottawa.

The orange and brown polymer note was introduced in November. The front of the billfeatures a portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary as a young man, while the back showcases a yellow-eyed penguin anddaisies.

Jorge Peral isvice-president of design and master engraver at the Canadian Bank Note Company, and he's responsible for designing it.

"It was quite challenging, actually, to create that, to create all these textures, the whiskers in [Sir Edmund Hillary's]face. It was exciting, I think one of my best portraits ever engraved, and this all now by computer," Peral told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Friday.

After decades of engraving by hand, Peralhad to learn how to usecomputer software to do it instead in just a few years.

"I spent ...more than 30 years doing this business by hand, and now, just moving to digital, it's a little bit hard. I'm still missing cutting by hand, but the computer has much more advantages these days these days bank notes are more and more sophisticated than previous years," he said.

These days, Peral is passing on his engraving skills to his son, who engraved the penguin for the $5 note.

Ottawa Morning6:37Ottawa man designs world's best banknote

A five-dollar banknote has been named best-bill-in-the-world and it was designed by an artist right here in Ottawa.