Dr Andrzej Nowak, Head of Open Innovation at SICPA, presented at the Future of Cash conference in Warsaw in November about what a radical banknote of the future could look like.

One of the discussions at G+D’s July Currency Technology Symposium centred on how efficiency can be leveraged to build resilience across a wide range of scenarios through rethinking cash centre operations.

In China, commemorative banknotes are more than just banknotes; they serve as carriers of significant historical memories, reflections of Chinese culture, and symbols of national achievements. Because of this, the country sets a high store on quality standards for each note. Among the features most valued by collectors is the presence of consecutive serial numbers – the more unique and uninterrupted the sequence, the greater the collectible value.

At the Currency Conference in May, Bundesdruckerei presented visuals of the latest house note in its ExNihilo series. To do so, it used an ingenious new tool from Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) – Nota-Live™, which provides accurate live simulation of security documents, complete with realistic optically-varying effects, offering an exceptionally accurate and dynamic way to visualise the designs of these documents.

The ultra-fast trading platform Fastex recently announced the release of a series of collectible currency notes, each backed 1:1 by FTN token, the platform’s native cryptocurrency. Unveiled in early July at the Harmony Meetup 7 in Yerevan, Armenia, the annual event that unites top minds from Web3 and iGaming, these notes feature banknote-grade anti-counterfeit features provided by Authentix.

Sensor and feature specialist Authentix has announced the launch of the banknote industry’s first CDI2 fitness solution – the GemVision™ Camera System, designed to help central banks lower currency management costs, combat counterfeiting, and improve the quality of circulating banknotes.

As noted in the December issue of Currency News™, as part of its recent restructuring Koenig & Bauer has spun out its inspection systems and protection technologies into a separate business unit – Vision & Protection (V&P) – headed by Julian Schubert, formerly Vice President of Data, Vision and Authentication Solutions.

At the recent High Security Printing™ EMEA conference in Basel, Switzerland, Dr Alexander Brannan from the University of Manchester, and Gary Spinks of Security Fibres UK, presented advances in colour-changing smart materials designed for rapid authentication. This technology addresses key issues in anticounterfeiting by integrating academic research with industrial application.

Back in May last year we covered the pre-launch at the Banknote Conference of a new polymer substrate from Covestro, and in December the official launch under the name CERTEVO®. It appears we were premature, as that launch referred to the version intended for ID and secure document, not currency.

Data both allows and creates questions. Answering questions generates information. Information allows decisions and actions. Without accurate, relevant, reliable, consistent, standardised and timely data, creating and delivering anything is hard, particularly change.