The Guatemalan currency, the quetzal, was introduced in 1924. The Q1 commemorative banknote, released in September 2024, is only the second commemorative banknote in the history of Banco de Guatemala (Banguat), and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the quetzal as the national monetary unit.

In last months’ Currency News™, we reference the Bank of Guyana’s upgrade of its $500 and $1,000 banknotes with Rolling Star® LEAD Pure security foil from Louisenthal on the former, and Crane’s RAPID® Vision security thread on the latter. In this article, we provide more details of the $500.

Oberthur Fiduciaire is introducing a new family house notes at the Global Currency Forum (GCF), on the theme of ‘The Art of Butterflies’.

According to the hit single I’m Your Venus (from the Dutch rock band Shocking Blue in 1969 and then again from the UK girl band Bananarama in 1986), ‘Venus is the name of the game’. It’s also the name of Louisenthal’s latest security feature – specifically RollingStar® Venus, an upgrade on the company’s portfolio of threads based on its micro-mirror technology.

Another company launching a new house note during the Global Currency Forum is KURZ. The note, dubbed Meadow, has been designed to promote the company’s ‘KURZ THREADS with KINEGRAM COLORS®’ portfolio.

Currency News™ began to publish global annual updates on banknote demand in 2017. The first years provided no major surprises. Normally, a few currencies (less than 10%) had a negative annual growth rate by value of banknotes in circulation and similarly a few currencies (again less than 10%) had a high annual growth rate of more than 25%.

On 3 July 2024, the Bank of Japan started issuing a new series of banknotes consisting of 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen, and 1,000 yen notes: a historic moment in Japan, as this is the first time in 20 years that a new series of banknotes has been introduced.

Bank Al-Maghrib has issued new 50 dirham banknote, the third in its new series.

In what was termed a ‘grand reveal’, the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten hosted simultaneous events on both islands to unveil the designs of the banknotes and coins of its new currency, the Caribbean guilder.

This short phrase is a truism. Another is ‘you get what you pay for’. When security fibres are used in banknotes, it is fair to say both truisms apply. Security fibres may be very small, but the level of security they provide certainly gives value for money.