The Bank of Mongolia has issued a limited edition 5,000 tugrik commemorative banknote to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the central bank and the strengthening of the modern banking system in Mongolia. The banknotes are in the same design as the circulating 5000 tugrik but include a number of new security features.

The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) has begun an investigation into the phasing out of hundreds of bank cash machines and their replacement by a new consolidated network of ‘neutral’ Bancontact- branded ATMs. The investigation focuses on accessibility to the ATMs, and therefore to cash, as well as on the quality of service, notably in terms of waiting time.

Spectra Systems’ annual report, released at the end of June, showed revenues for 2023 increased by 3.4% to $20.28 million and operating profit, EDITDA (before stock compensation expenses) by 3.9% to $8.39 million.

Commemorative coins are a common way for countries to mark their participation in international sporting events, particularly if they are hosting those events. Less so for commemorative banknotes, but they are becoming more popular.

In an age where consumers, companies and central banks are seeking to reduce raw materials use and close the loop on waste, banknote recycling has never been more important.

This short phrase is a truism. Another is ‘you get what you pay for’. When security fibres are used in banknotes, it is fair to say both truisms apply. Security fibres may be very small, but the level of security they provide certainly gives value for money.

Last month, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the introduction of polymer banknotes in New Zealand. But all is not well with cash ‘down under’, with usage in rapid decline and the cash infrastructure in decline as well – both in response to falling demand and also a driver for it.

The high-level programme and award categories for the next edition of The Coin Conference have been announced, with the event scheduled to take place 28-30 October in Lisbon, Portugal.

In this periodic series of articles covering cash information in central bank annual reports, we turn out attention this month to Canada, the ECCB, India, Ireland, and Spain.

When systems go down, they can go down big-time. As happened recently with the CrowdStrike software update glitch that caused a multitude of Microsoft systems around the world to crash, hitting hospitals and healthcare, transport, hospitality, retailers and payments. Cash, once again, was the fallback option.

In May’s issue of Currency News™, we featured Bundesdruckerei’s new Ignis house note as the Banknote of the Month. Here, we continue the theme with the presentation of four new house notes – one from Casa de Moneda de Chile and three from Polish Security Printing Works.

A bulletin published by the Banque de France describes its work on environmental sustainability. The paper offers up a model for others to consider, detailing the Bank's work on areas it controls directly and its collaborative work with others in the cash cycle.

Koenig & Bauer, in its report on its first quarter results, gave further details of its Spotlight programme, launched earlier this year to prioritise initiatives and business models that boost earnings and financial strength, deprioritise initiatives that do not directly impact earnings and optimise the group and segment organisation as well as the indirect cost structure to make processes even leaner and more customer-friendly.

Q&T Hi-Tech Polymer (Q&T), the latest arrival to the polymer substrate market, has announced that it has made remarkable progress since its establishment three years ago by securing its third contract for supply of Polysecure for the Vietnamese currency.

The 2024 High Security Printing™ (HSP) Latin America conference took place, for the second time in its 12-year history, in the longest and narrowest country on Earth, filled with starkly contrasting landscapes that stretch from the driest desert in the world to ancient glaciers still waiting to be discovered. That country is Chile.

Is dollarisation a cure-all for unstable, hyper-inflationary nations? It is very hard to make that judgement, especially since stronger currencies, whether it be the dollar or euro, are also subject to changes in their value which may or may not benefit the dollarised economies in the short-term.

The Federal Council of Switzerland has appointed Martin Schlegel as the new chairman of the governing board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). He succeeds Thomas Jordan at the helm, who is retiring after more than 12 years in the position.

In June’s issue of Currency News™, we covered the rebirth of CPS and its new strategy. As part of this strategy, CPS has worked with its sister-company Enterprise Cash Management to develop ECM™ – Centralised Control.

The frequency of the introduction of a new series or an upgrade was addressed in the April issue of Currency News. In this article, Antti Heinonen continues the debate by addressing the topic from a historical perspective.

At the Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference in in Lisbon this April, Michael Natan, President of Diametryx Inc, presented his new company’s intriguing colour-change particles in which the effects change not only by tilting, but shaking as well.