The frequency of the introduction of a new series or an upgrade was addressed in the April issue of Currency News. In this article, Antti Heinonen continues the debate by addressing the topic from a historical perspective.

At the Banknote Conference in May, Guilmar Ernesto Moncayo Ponce from the Bank of Mexico provided information about progress on the first of a three phase project looking at the presence and role of micro-organisms on banknotes.

According to the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS), a significant milestone concerning the new Caribbean guilder has been reached, namely the printing of the first new banknotes.

Q&T Hi-Tech Polymer (Q&T), the latest arrival to the polymer substrate market, has announced that it has made remarkable progress since its establishment three years ago by securing its third contract for supply of Polysecure for the Vietnamese currency.

New Zealand adopted polymer banknotes in 1999. At the time, Brian Lang was Head of Currency at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ). To mark the 25th anniversary of polymerisation, we sat down with Brian to discuss the rationale behind the transition and assess its results.

In last month’s Currency News™, we featured Bundesdruckerei’s remarkable new Ignis house note as the Banknote of the Month. In this issue, we continue the theme with the presentation of four new house notes – one from Casa de Moneda de Chile (CdM) and three from Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW) – all of which combine innovative design with the latest security features from the respective companies and their partners.

The prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing (HSP) Latin America conference. This year’s event was held in Santiago, Chile, with the awards presented at a special ceremony, during the conference dinner on 4 June.

Towards the end of 2023, Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering (Kusters) carried out an extensive survey involving central banks globally, in partnership with Reconnaissance International.

The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR) has issued the new 5,000 som banknote, the seventh and last banknote of the fifth series, completing the modernisation that started in May 2023. The new series includes denominations ranging from 20 to 5,000 som – all featuring RAPID HD® Detect from Crane Currency.

Antti Heinonen looks at the evolution of central bank engagement with the public on banknotes, considering what lessons can be learned and including his own personal perspective.