Composting unfit cotton banknotes that have been shredded sits higher in the waste disposal hierarchy than sending it to landfill or burning it for energy recovery.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has filed two RFIs to improve ‘counterfeit deterrent features on future’ US currency, specifying that the proposals should have deterrent features that are ‘novel and not otherwise in commercial use of the public domain.’

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.

Back by popular demand, the latest edition of The Directory of Currency & Technology Suppliers is now being compiled. This sought-after directory is an essential resource for central banks and issuers, printers and mints, and everyone in the cash cycle to identify suppliers and partners.

Whilst the Russian invasion of Ukraine exactly one year ago may have come as a surprise to many, it certainly didn’t to the Ukrainians themselves, who as early as Autumn 2021 were taking steps to minimise risks to the cash supply chain and decentralise the storage of cash stocks in anticipation of major disruption.

All arrangements are now in place for this year’s High Security Printing (HSP) EMEA, which takes place 7-9 March in Abu Dhabi. Attendance is at near capacity for the three day event, which includes two pre-conference seminars and two days of plenary sessions split into tracks covering currency and identification.

The online database that comes free with your subscription to Currency News™ (and its sister publications Coin & Mint News™ and Cash & Payment News™) has changed.

In October, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced that the three highest naira denominations (the N 200, 500 and 1,000) were being redesigned and reissued, with a six week period between issue and demonetisation (from 19 December to 31 January).

Francois Charles Oberthur (Oberthur) has acquired a 65.5% stake in Rolling Optics, a Swedish developer of micro-optics technology, for a sum believed to be in the region of $15-20 million.

The Japanese government has appointed academic Kazuo Ueda as the next Bank of Japan Governor. He was a member of the BoJ’s policy board between 1998 and 2005, and before that an economics professor at the University of Tokyo. He will succeed Haruhiko Kuroda, whose second five-year term ends in April.

The Bank of Israel has announced that most new coins entering circulation with Hebrew mint year 5782 (2022 in the Gregorian calendar) will feature updated inscriptions. This encompasses four coin denominations – the NIS 10, NIS 5, NIS ½, and 10 agorot.

Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP) has released a new 20 zloty commemorative banknote dedicated to the famous Polish astronomer, economist and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus, marking the 550th anniversary of his birth, and the 480th anniversary of his death.

Annemieke de Gooijer from the Dutch National Bank (DNB) presented in November at the Cash & Payments Sustainability Forum™ in Edinburgh on the Dutch experience of including sustainability in its procurement processes.

Currency Research will be holding the inaugural Silk Road Cash & Payments Conference in Almaty from 27-29 March.

Advanced technologies continue to improve and become even more sophisticated. This is definitely so for the enduring R+D work focused on reducing the banknote counterfeit threat.

Each February it is customary in Currency News™ to cover the annual results for 2022 for the leading companies in cash management, which is when most are published, with their success (or otherwise) providing a useful means of taking the pulse of our industry.

Germany has been working over the past three years on a project known as BASIC, which aims to strengthen the resilience of the cash supply infrastructure in the event of an emergency or crisis.

2022 saw the second lowest level of counterfeits as a proportion of total banknotes in circulation in the history of the euro (2021 being the lowest year).

Currency News spoke to Dr Georges Chalhoub, Director, Cash Operations at Banque du Liban to find out more about recent events in the country and how, in the midst of these, the Bank continues to keep innovation alive.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has unveiled a commemorative banknote to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.