Titled ‘Change’, the Royal Australian Mint’s 2023 annual report is aptly named for an organisation that experienced multiple significant changes over the course of last year, including the introduction of the new royal effigy on its circulating coins and the extensive renovation of its visitor centre.

The Central Bank of Lesotho is issuing new 10 and 20 maloti banknotes which have the same design as the current notes but which will be the first to feature Anima™ security threads from Oberthur Fiduciaire, via its partnership with (and subsequent acquisition of a majority stake in) Rolling Optics.

The programme has now been published for High Security Printing™ (HSP) Asia, which takes place 2-4 December 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Central Bank of Samoa is issuing limited-edition commemorative banknotes, designed and printed by De La Rue, honouring Samoa’s historic hosting of the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held in Apia, Samoa from 21-26 October 2024.

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has cleared the way for Evergreen NZ Holdings to acquire 100% of the shares of ACM New Zealand. Evergreen already owns Armourguard, the country’s dominant supplier of CIT and related service, and the acquisition of ACM from its parent Linfox Armaguard will create a monopoly.

De La Rue has announced that it will sell its Authentication Division to Crane NXT for a cash consideration representing an enterprise value of £300 million. The sale will enable it to pay off a revolving credit facility due for repayment next July and significantly reduce the deficit in its legacy defined pension benefit scheme, leaving it focus on its core currency business.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a comprehensive plan to revamp its currency management infrastructure over the next 4-5 years, mainly to ensure adequate storage and handling capacity to cater to the growing economy’s future cash needs.

Sesami Cash Management Technologies Corporation, a subsidiary of security services firm Gardaworld, has acquired the UK-based Consillion Group (previously known as Banking Automation), a provider of cash automation systems which also operates in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

China Banknote Printing and Minting (CBPM) has been implementing a series of clean production and carbon reduction measures in the production of raw materials such as paper, thread, and ink, such as using-toxicity auxiliary materials and reducing pollutants, in order to make the production of the renminbi and other currencies more environmentally friendly.

In last month’s issue of Currency News, we provided details of Oberthur Fiduciaire’s new house note series, on the theme of the Art of Butterflies, comprising five different designs and five different security threads printed on one sheet.

Giesecke+Devrient first unveiled its new Banknote Fiber Extractor® (BFE) in July 2023, which extracts fibres from banknote waste that is suitable for high end repurposing. It has now announced the achievement of another milestone – namely the successful conversion in the first real-life test case of fibres from old banknotes into high quality cardboard at an industrial scale.

Currency Research, organiser of the upcoming EMEA Cash Cycle (ICCOS) & Payments Seminar in Cape Town, South Africa (25-28 November), says this year’s edition is shaping up to be one of the best-attended regional cash events in years.

In this new periodic feature for Currency News™ we report on the latest tenders and contract awards for banknotes, coins and related services.

Further to the news that De La Rue has agreed a sale of its Authentication business to Crane NXT – a move that will alleviate the financial pressures that have hung over the company in recent years – Currency News™ spoke to Ruth Euling, Executive Director and Managing Director of the remaining Currency division, to find out more about the sale and what it means for the company in terms of production, investment, and its customers.

On 3 October, the Argentinean media went wild announcing that Milei’s never- a-dull-moment government would be restructuring and, possibly closing, the Argentine Mint (Casa de Moneda República Argentina – CAMOAR).

Estonia is set to introduce new rounding rules next year, with the country also planning to stop minting 1 and 2 cent coins.

The Brazilian President has nominated Gabriel Galípolo to be the next Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil.

In the first half of 2024, Spectra Systems achieved sales of $22.74 million, an increase of 96% compared to the first half of 2023.

At the Global Currency Forum, Daniel Schwarzbach, Innovation Director at Orell Füssli Security Printing (OFS), unveiled the company’s new tool for measuring the environmental impact of banknotes – BEES® (Banknote Environmental Evaluation Software), which it believes is the first design-oriented LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) tool not just for banknotes, but for any sector.

The saying ‘made of money’ is often used as an idiom to describe wealthy people. In the case of De La Rue, its interpretation of the term under its new #madeofmoney campaign is literal – namely, consumer items that are made out of recycled polymer banknote waste.