The National Bank of Kazakhstan has issued a commemorative 1,000 tenge note celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory and the end of World War II in Europe.

Currency News™ is publishing a round-up of all new banknotes and coins issued in 2024. This annual summary will be issued each year from now on, covering the previous year’s new issues.

The 32nd Mint Directors Conference (MDC) was held from 27–29 April 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa, co-hosted by the South African Mint. The event focused on merging traditional minting with modern technology via keynotes, workshops, and panel sessions. An awards ceremony recognised achievements in coin design and packaging (see CN April 2025).

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.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) has published its Banconota Spring/Summer edition dedicated to one subject, sustainability. The focus of the piece is how KBBS is helping its customers reduce the environmental impact of what they do.

Banknote security is an undisputable must. But what are the developing trends in banknote security, and how are industry suppliers meeting these challenges?

The Currency Conference gala dinner on 28 May hosted the presentation of the latest International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) 2025 Technical Excellence in Currency Awards.

If every central bank and monetary authority were to consistently publish the number of banknotes in circulation, this article wouldn’t be necessary. However, that isn’t the case, and the question is raised every now then in discussions. Various estimates, some around 550 billion, are cited in industry reports and presentations, which prompted me to dig deeper as the numbers seemed low. This article highlights some of the challenges involved when considering the question and provides an estimate for further discussion.

This month, the focus of our periodic series of articles covering cash information in central bank annual and other reports is split between Europe and Asia, with updates from Germany, Portugal, Spain, Hong Kong, Korea and Sri Lanka.

The European Central Bank has published the production requirements for euro banknotes for 2026, which – at just under 1.95 billion – is nearly half that of 2025 (3.4 billion) and the second lowest figure since the euro was introduced in 2002 (the only year it was lower was in 2004). The value is €56 billion.

Giesecke+Devrient will hold its customer event – the G+D Currency Technology Symposium 2025 – from July 7-10 at its Munich headquarters. Themed ‘Currency Fast Forward,’ this event will examine the pivotal role of public currency as a foundation of trust in the rapidly evolving digital landscape, highlighting the indispensable role of cash as critical infrastructure, a public asset, and a key element of national security.

It’s an exciting time for Crane NXT. Crane NXT (‘CXT’ – NYSE) just completed the acquisition of De La Rue’s Authentication business, and combined it with its existing portfolio, the Smart Packaging assets of TruTag and brand protection specialist OpSec (acquired in 2024) to form a new company – Crane Authentication. Together with Crane Currency, these form the newly-created business unit Security & Authentication Technologies (SAT), which sits alongside Crane Payment Innovations.

As described in last month’s Currency News™, the new Caribbean guilder has now been issued. It’s been a long time coming, but well worth the wait.

The East African Community (EAC) has re-established the region’s Monetary Affairs Committee (MAC) following the appointment of new heads of central banks, bringing hope for new ideas to get the implementation of a single currency for the region back on track, after the initial deadline of 2024 was extended to 2031.

After years of debate about the future of the US one cent coin (penny), the US Treasury has now confirmed that its production will stop once stocks of blanks, the last order for which was placed this month, are used up.

In keeping with our apiology theme (ie. the study of bees), one company that is using the stripey stingers to support a major financial literacy initiative is Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions, who presented the BeeSmart educational platform at the recent HSP EMEA conference in Basel.

The United Nations and its agencies hold international observance days (and in some cases weeks or even years) to promote global issues . There are 218 overall – many on familiar topics such as women, family, oceans, the environment. But there are some unexpected ones too - toilets, potatoes, tea, tuna, bicycles, seagrass.

Reconnaissance, co-publisher of Currency News™, launched a new website on 22 April (World Mother Earth Day) as a cash community asset to capture and consolidate initiatives, work and research from every part of the cash cycle and provide tools to support organisations on their pathway to a greener future.

At the High Security Printing™ (HSP) Asia conference in Bangkok last December, currency and counterfeit expert Aleksei Faleev gave a presentation on a survey conducted among cashiers in Kyrgyzstan to gauge their knowledge of and preferences for banknote security features. He has subsequently written this article based on that presentation.

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.