2024 has kicked off with a focus on cash, particularly a series of initiatives by central banks to safeguard access to cash.

This is the first in a series of articles that explores the cultural aspect of money that goes beyond its function as a means of payment or store of value. Many societies have a long-standing tradition of gifting money (banknotes and coins) to mark auspicious occasions – births and birthdays, weddings and other special events, where the value of the gift is as much social as it is financial.

Cash & Payment News™ (CPN) is the sister publication to Currency News™. It was first published in July 2018 as the successor to Payment News Quarterly and, while Currency News focuses on the product that is ‘cash’, CPN has concentrated on the use of cash once issued.

Currency News™ has officially ‘come of age’! That is, if reaching its 21st birthday counts as the coming of age – which in many societies it does.

In 2021, Currency News™ issued a special supplement – Concept Notes: Art, Design and Security in One – which reviewed the latest and best ‘concept’ or ‘house’ notes. Following the success of this supplement, we will issue the second version in 2024, covering the newest concept notes over the intervening period.

The growth of the internet and social media has been accompanied by a growth in fake news and a fall in traditional, fact-checked journalism. Articles and claims can be circulated freely without appropriate governance. Fake news on a range of issues has incited violence and hate while changing behaviours and influencing politics. It can also damage reputations and lead to unfair advantages.

If we look at the frighteningly long list of disasters and crises in 2022 and the start of 2023, these events are random, often unexpected and usually large scale. What connects them all is the disruption of the ability to use digital payments. The knee jerk answer historically is to turn to cash.

January 2023 marks the 20th birthday of Currency News™, so we thought we would take a quick tour of the last two decades and provide a back-of-the-envelope analysis of the differences in the cash ecosystem, and issues and priorities, between then and now.

There was a palpable sense of optimism as 2021 concluded that – despite disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns and a virus on the march again – things were finally improving and would start going back to where they were, or at the very least, to somewhere different but nevertheless better than the previous two years.

One of the defining characteristics of the mint industry, compared with the banknote industry, is the level of cooperation between the various producers. Another has been its apparent stability. Perhaps the two are related.