Cash & Payment News™ is our sister publication and, in its coverage and analysis of how cash is used and the wider payments eco-system, is a perfect complement to the issues covered by Currency News™.

SUSI Optics® Jazz™, the latest addition to the SUSI Optics® family of optically variable features for banknotes, was launched at the Currency Conference in May, with a stunning specimen note produced to demonstrate the spectrum of opportunities it offers.

Nominations are now open for the MDC’s prestigious Coin Awards. Last held in 2018, the awards recognise industry achievements in the design, production and packaging of coins, as well as, for the first time, sustainability in minting.

‘Make in India’, the long-running government-sponsored initiative to ‘on-shore’ production and reduce imports, is now resulting in Indian entities becoming global providers.

The Currency Conference took part in Mexico City in May 2023, overlapping with the Digital Currency Conference. This report is the first of two summaries of the conference.

At the Currency Conference in May, Dieter Sauter, Vice President & General Manager Value Printing for Bundesdruckerei, unveiled the concept behind the ‘Dark Banknote Series‘, and the first note in this series (ExNihilo), which is the result of the SIRALab initiative.

Design testing is not easy but is good practice. Ernesto Gonzalez Candela of Mexican firm UnderCurrency, which offers consulting services and products to assess and improve the performance of banknotes and coins, presented a new tool at the Optical and Digital Document Security conference in April to help central banks optimise their banknote designs and have confidence that they will perform in circulation.

De la Rue has announced its results for the financial year ending March 2023. These were eagerly awaited following a trading update issued by the company April (see CN April 2023).

In its annual report for 2022-23, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has provided details of the financial performance of its minting and banknote printing subsidiaries South African Mint (SAM) and South African Bank Note (SABN).

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has finally approved the merger of Australia’s two largest cash in transit companies – Linfox Armaguard and Prosegur Australia. The merger will create a single cash logistics provider, operating under the Armaguard name, with an estimated market share of more than 90%.

If you are responsible for the design and issue of a new banknote, you face a daunting task. As the latest edition of Currency News™ suggests, it can be a complex and unenviable undertaking. Frankly, good luck!

In this, the latest in our monthly summary of central bank annual reports, we look at Thailand, India, Peru, Tunisia, Timor-Leste, Ukraine and Hong Kong.

Whilst NCR appears to be going from strength to strength, the same cannot be said of Diebold Nixdorf, No 2 in the marketplace.

Nassau, the Bahamas was the spectacular setting for the 10th HSP (High Security Printing) Latin America conference, which welcomed 250 delegates from 118 organisations and 36 countries, over half from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Bank of Jamaica’s new banknote series has now gone into circulation, marking a complete transition to polymer for the country’s currency.

The independent think tank CashEssentials has launched two new initiatives – the Cash Academic Network and the Cash Associations’ Forum – both aimed at building bridges within different groups of the cash community.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the withdrawal of the 2,000 rupee banknote from circulation, albeit that it will continue to be legal tender. Even so, the public is being urged to exchange the notes before 30 September, marking the end of this denomination which was only introduced in 2016.

As the crisis in Sudan appears to be sliding inexorably towards civil war, the UN and its non-governmental partners are planning for a protracted humanitarian catastrophe.

The Currency Conference gala dinner on 16 May hosted the presentation of the latest International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) 2021 Technical Excellence in Currency Awards.

Blendpaper was one of the presenters in the second episode of the Cash & Payments Sustainability Forum™ online seminar series on repurposing unfit cotton banknotes.