In 2020 Fedrigoni sold its Brazilian paper mill and Blendpaper / BP Security were created. The mill was originally founded in 1889 as Papel de Salto but was taken over by ArjoMari/Papel Simão in 1976, by Arjowiggins in 1997, and finally by Fedrigoni in 2015.

The Central Bank of Solomon Islands has announced plans to issue a new commemorative $10 banknote printed on SAFEGUARD® polymer by De La Rue.

All arrangements are now in place for this year’s High Security Printing Latin America, which takes place in Nassau, the Bahamas from 5-7 June.

Royal United Mint, the parent company of the Royal Dutch Mint and the Belgian Mauquoy Token Company, has acquired Osborne Coinage Co, based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the oldest private mint in the US.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s outgoing Director, Len Olijar called 2022 an exciting year on many fronts in his introduction to the agency’s Annual Report, citing progress in a number of areas, including the goal of upgrading its facilities.

The United States Mint continued to manufacture circulating coins at high levels in 2022, albeit fewer than in the two previous years, which had been characterised by coins not circulating through the economy as rapidly as before the pandemic. The drop in volumes produced and revenues for the year marked a return to a more normal pattern of demand.

When we look at a piece of art, what exactly are we seeing? This of course depends on who we are, expert or amateur; but it also depends on our mood, our state of mind, and how much time we have.

The 2023 Future of Cash Conference takes place 6-8 November in Istanbul, and will bring together all stakeholders of the cash community – central banks, financial institutions, retailers, cash management companies, technology providers and supplier - to discuss new strategies to design the cash cycle of the future.

Both the Monnaie de Paris and the Mint of Finland have published their results for 2022. The French mint had a good year, the Finnish Mint did not.

Just under a year ago, Concha Jiménez retired from the Banco de España after more than 40 years with the central bank. Concha spoke to Currency News™ about her career, key changes at the Bank, the challenges of being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated environment, and what she plans to do next.

Private equity group Aurelius has announced the successful completion of the acquisition of Agfa Offset Solutions from the Agfa-Gevaert Group for €92 million.

De La Rue has recently provided a trading update, which indicates both a small (mid-single digit percentage) drop in profitability below market expectations (of £30-33 million) for 2022/23 but an uncertain outlook for 2023/24, with a potentially sharp reduction in profits. The share price fell 20% on the news.

Koenig & Bauer has reported that, based on its preliminary and as yet unaudited figures, group EBIT for 2022 has exceeded its own forecast, as well as market expectations. This was in spite of a challenging environment characterised by supply chain constraints and an associated increase in material and energy costs, and a loss in one of its main divisions – the Digital and Webfed segment.

In the start of a new series in Currency News, we will be providing a summary of each month of central bank annual reports, and in particular developments regarding cash – be it circulation, management or counterfeiting.

Bankgo Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has won the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) Banknote of the Year award for 2022 for the 1,000 piso note, breaking the Banco of Mexico’s winning streak after it scooped the award for both 2020 and 2021.

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2022 as having a challenging business environment but one in which it has achieved strong results. The challenges have included rising energy, raw material and logistic costs, worldwide inflation, supply chain challenges, particularly for chips, and the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Whilst we have reported in the last two issues on broadly positive financial results for the cash management sector, the same cannot be said of the banknote production side of the industry, as De La Rue’s recent trading update shows.

In the February issue of Currency News, we covered the acquisition by Oberthur Fiduciare (OF) of two thirds of the shares of the Swedish micro-optics firm RollingOptics, signalling its intention to focus on the growing area of micro-optics for security features. But even before this acquisition, OF had launched Pulsar™.

Crane NXT has announced the completion of its separation from Crane Co., the US-based industrial products and processes conglomerate, and its launch as an independent, publicly traded company.

The arrival of cryptocurrencies poses a fundamental challenge for cash cycle operators and banknote printers. For those firms that can successfully pivot, there are new market opportunities, including the challenge of how to integrate banknotes into a future digital payments economy.