[2] The vatu was issued as a single unit with no subdivision, with the 1 vatu coin being the smallest denomination issued, in a similar vein to the (post-1953) Japanese yen and the Tajikistani ruble (although that had an official if theoretical, subdivision).

In 2011, the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu ceased to issue 1 and 2 vatu coins, which had become infrequently used due to inflation.

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.

[8] Local residents sometimes refer to a notional dollar, equal to 100 vatu, without specifying which country's currency they have in mind.

Although no relationship currently exists, it simplifies thinking in the larger numbers which a low-value unit causes.

Many communities in Vanuatu continue to conduct ceremonial business such as the paying of fines and bride-prices using traditional items of value, such as pigs, curved boars' tusks and long dyed mats.

Vatu is sometimes used as a substitute for traditional valuables in such ceremonies, although the National Council of Chiefs discourages this.

The Tangbunia bank, based on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu, offers accounts and transfers denominated in livatu, a unit of currency equivalent to the value of a fully curved boar's tusk.