The 2024 Global Currency Forum (GCF) – which takes place in Muscat, Oman from 30 September-3 October – is set to host a series of panel discussions that promise to delve deep into the evolving landscape of global cash and currency. This year’s forum features an impressive lineup of experts who will share their insights on various topics, from the role of banknote design in national identity to the sustainability of cash.

In recent weeks, Da Afghanistan Bank (the country’s central bank) has incinerated c. 2 billion worn-out Afghani banknotes. In 2023, it collected and incinerated approximately 5.2 billion banknotes.

The Royal Mint has announced its results for 2023-24, which are in sharp contrast to the success of the previous year.

De La Rue has released a comprehensive set of full year results for FY2023/24. These results were in line with market expectations and its previous trading update.

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.

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.

According to the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS), a significant milestone concerning the new Caribbean guilder has been reached, namely the printing of the first new banknotes.

Banco de Moçambique has launched a new series of banknotes and coins to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the central bank and the 45th anniversary of Mozambique’s currency, the metical.

At the Banknote Conference in May, Guilmar Ernesto Moncayo Ponce from the Bank of Mexico provided information about progress on the first of a three phase project looking at the presence and role of micro-organisms on banknotes.

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.

The prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing (HSP) Latin America conference. This year’s event was held in Santiago, Chile, with the awards presented at a special ceremony, during the conference dinner on 4 June.

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.

Researchers at the Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (CENPARMI) at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada have utilised image-mining techniques and machine learning algorithms to identify flaws in counterfeit coins, enabling greater detection of fakes.

New Zealand adopted polymer banknotes in 1999. At the time, Brian Lang was Head of Currency at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ). To mark the 25th anniversary of polymerisation, we sat down with Brian to discuss the rationale behind the transition and assess its results.

The Bank of England has now put into circulation the new series of notes bearing the portrait of King Charles III.

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has once again been ranked among Corporate Knights’ Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada. The ranking is based on 24 quantitative key performance indicators relating to resource management, employee management, financial management, clean revenue, clean investment and supplier performance.

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.

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.