There is a lot going on in the Philippines at the moment. Currency News™ caught up with Deputy Governor Mamomet Tangonan at the recent Banknote & Currency Conference to find out more.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) is moving its gold vault and banknote activities from its head office in Amsterdam to Camp New Amsterdam in Zeist, and is making good progress on the project, which is due to complete next year.

The UK’s Royal Mint (TRM) has announced plans to build a new plant in Llantrisant, South Wales, to recover gold from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).Construction of the plant has started and, when fully operational in 2023, expects to process up to 90 tonnes of UK-sourced circuit boards per week, generating ‘hundreds of kilograms’ of gold each year.

The Mint Directors Conference is normally held every two years, providing an opportunity for discussions, information-sharing and debate within and about the industry.

Crane Co – the US-based industrial products and processes conglomerate – has announced plans to separate the company into two independent publicly-traded companies.

Across industry publications, conferences and reporting, sustainability now sits alongside other key topics such as security, technical excellence, efficiency, value for money etc. This industry has done a great deal of work and made a real difference in its operations across the key areas where it affects the environment.

The European Council has adopted a recommendation by the European Commission on the conversion of hryvnia banknotes into the currency of member states hosting people escaping the war in Ukraine.

SICPA has unveiled the name for its new campus in Lausanne – unlimitrust. Formerly known as Square One, the aim of the new campus, the first of its kind, is to bring together diverse partners promoting the ‘Economy of Trust’, linking the security of the physical world with its digital counterpart in order to protect goods and people from the vulnerabilities created by today’s global digitalised economy and governance.

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2021 in financial terms as one of the most successful in its history. Sales of €2.38 billion were a 2.8% improvement on the previous year and almost back at the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

De La Rue has issued a trading update in which it said that it expects its full year operating profits to be in line with market expectations (these being based on the average published notes from Investec and Numis Securities). Net debt is expected to be slightly better than market expectations of £75 million.

As described in the Banknote of the Month feature in the February issue of Currency News™, Kazakhstan’s new 20,000 tenge is memorable on a number of fronts – not least because the use of the Durasafe® substrate enabled the first ever application of a stripe in a vertical orientation, but also because it is the world’s first circulating note to incorporate SICPA’s new SPARK Flow® feature.

De La Rue launched the next effects in its IGNITE® thread portfolio at the Banknote & Currency Conference in February. IGNITE belongs to the fast-growing combinational thread category that is becoming extremely popular amongst central banks that issue paper banknotes.

At the Banknote & Currency Conference in February, Swiss substrate manufacturer Landqart revealed new research it has been carrying out on how to dispose of banknotes at the end of their life in an environmentally sound way.

The Banco de México has continued its award-winning streak with the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) Banknote of the Year award for 2021 for the 50 peso. It won the same award for 2020 for the new 100 peso. And both notes recently earned it the HSP Regional Banknote of the Year award.

BP Security is the new name for the security papermaker in Brazil, the only one in Latin America capable of producing banknote-grade mould made paper, formerly owned by Fedrigoni.

Following the return of in-person events, one company that has been prominent with its range of eye-catching optically variable features is IQ Structures, the largest of three subsidiaries of the IQS Group in the Czech Republic, which specialises in lithography techniques, 3D nano-printing and industrial replication of nanostructured materials.

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish and Recycle are the five widely-accepted elements of a circular economy. This article from CCL Secure covers three of them.

The Central Bank of Tunisia has issued two new banknotes – the 5 and 50 dinars – which will co-circulate with the existing versions. The 50 dinar features the former Prime Minister, Hédi Nouira, and the 5 dinar a portrait of the engineer, agronomist and activist Slaheddine Amami.

After several years of losses, the Mint of Finland has reported a significant increase in sales and return to profit for 2021. Consolidated revenue increased by 45% to €83 million, due largely to a good order backlog at the beginning the year.

Australia’s lower denomination coins will end up costing more to make than their face value, according to a report by the research outfit Morningstar, thanks to soaring metal prices.