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.
So to celebrate this milestone, below is both a review and a preview of what’s to come this year.
We launched in January 2003 with a 12 page newsletter, in spot colour, to be published ten times a year. This quickly moved to full colour and, as an indication of the quantity of news and information that our industry generates, is now routinely 16, and sometimes even 20, pages a month.
The headlines that month and indeed, for the first several years of publication, majored on counterfeiting, security features, substrates and capacity. These topics remain important, but fast forward 21 years, and the focus now is far more on resilience, access, sustainability and digitisation, none of which were major concerns back in 2022.
Along the way, and recognising the importance of coins in the cash cycle, we began covering coin topics, culminating in the issue of Mint News Quarterly, which became Coin & Mint News Quarterly, and was then spun out as a separate monthly publication– Coin & Mint News™.
Also recognising he importance of the broader payment landscape in which cash operates, we launched Payment News Quarterly, which turned into a separate monthly newsletter, Cash & Payment News, and which has started off 2024 with a new name – Cash, Payment & CBDC News™.
So Currency Publications Ltd – the publishing vehicle – now has three titles covering the full gamut of the cash cycle and the stakeholders within it.
And to supplement the news that comes each month, we added access to the Currency Index – a database of all the world’s banknotes and coins, and periodic directories – the Directory of Currency & Technology Suppliers (the seventh edition of which will be published this May to coincide with the Banknote Conference) and the Directory of Circulating Coins (the fourth edition of which will be published in October to coincide with the Coin Conference).
Other publications that form part of the portfolio include special reports on threads and diffractive features, white papers on sustainability and repurposing banknotes, and a special supplement on the latest and best concept (house) notes, the second edition of which will be published this spring. Also published shortly will be a summary of all the new banknote and coin issues of 2023, which we intend to make an annual supplement.
We have also embraced the digital era in publishing. Indeed, thanks to COVID, we had little choice. Currency News, and its sister publications, are now supported by e-publishing platforms where all the content can be viewed online, providing access to the monthly issues of each newsletter, as well as a searchable database of all articles, archives of all back issues, the Currency Index, and a weekly newsfeed.
They supplement the existing printed versions, ensuring that you always have access to the news on the go – as it happens and wherever you are.
And you may have noticed the new look for this issue of Currency News, which is part of the journey toward digitisation since it is not just for print but also online viewing.
Finally, in addition to the above, we had added a Tender Alert service for subscribers, starting this month, which provides information on public tenders for coins and banknotes – features, substrates, production, equipment, consultancy and other services.
We are also making our whole archive of 21 years’ worth of Currency News available to enterprise and charter subscribers.
It’s been quite a journey. We look forward to celebrating our next milestone, whatever that is (our silver anniversary, gold – even diamond?) with you all.
