The production of a million banknotes (or one shift of an intaglio printing line) produces 100 kg of intaglio ‘sludge’. Sludge is frequently sent to landfill because of its contamination in the process used to extract it from the printing process.

Hitachi Payment Services, India’s leading integrated payment solutions provider and a subsidiary of the Japanese multinational technology conglomeration Hitachi, has entered into an agreement to acquire the cash management business of Writer Safeguard from its parent, the Writer Corporation.

In the June issue of Currency News™, our lead article was on laws to protect cash gaining momentum, with specific reference to the euro and a proposal on legal tender status for notes and coins. This month we look at some developments on an individual country basis in Europe regarding enshrining the right to cash in law, both within and outside the eurozone.

Banking on World Heritage, a first-of-its-kind exhibition, was held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi from 30 June to 9 July. It was conceptualised and curated by Ms Rukmini Dahanukar, an independent research scholar under her proprietary research, ‘Money Talks’, that unfolds the untold story of banknote art and design from around the world.

What do the KGB, the Chinese Communist Party, the Canadian Prime Minister and the UK’s Brexit campaign leader have in common?

CBDCs started to become visible in published papers and discussions around 2016. No doubt there was much material before then but the acceleration of interest and activity has taken CBDCs from a niche to main stream media discussions.

This month we look at Europe, and the annual reports of some Eurosystem central banks, as well as the central banks of Albania, Denmark, Kosovo and Hungary.

The Central Bank of Libya (CBL) has been reinstated as a unified sovereign institution, almost a decade after it was split in two because of the civil war.

The Mint Directors Conference 2023 is fast approaching and the Royal Canadian Mint have shared highlights of the programme, comprising two days of thought-provoking sessions.

Plans for the separation of NCR Corporation into two separate businesses is moving apace, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission declaring effective the registration on Form 10. The two new businesses, NCR Atleos and NCR Voyix, will focus on ATMs and digital commerce in retail, hospitality and banking, respectively.

Banknotes have changed considerably since De La Rue printed its first paper money for Mauritius in 1860. The adoption of lithography introduced more colourful designs, patterns, and imagery. Security features such as watermarks, polymer windows, threads, novel inks, and applied features then additionally introduced contrasting textures and sheen, movement and complexity.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji has released a commemorative banknote to celebrate the Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon. The date of issue – the eighth day of the eighth month– is an auspicious one, the number 8 being the luckiest in Chinese culture, symbolising wealth and good fortune.

KURZ, the leading supplier of security foils with diffractive features, has produced a new reference book with a wide selection of images of banknotes that have utilised its KINEGRAM® technology.

In his interview in last month’s Currency News, Frederic Trojani, CEO of SURYS, referenced a new thread from the company, Vibes™.

Currency News caught up with Roeland Monasch, CEO of Aflatoun International, and Mark Stevenson, KBBS Market Development Manager, at Aflatoun’s headquarters in Amsterdam, to find out more about the companies' new partnership in the financial literacy space.

This month we look at how to deter the most common types of counterfeits.

Miguel López, Research and Development Unit Manager in Banco de España recently presented a new way of designing cash, Neurocash, at both the EMEA and Latin American High Security Printing conferences.

Biobanknote, developer of solutions for repurposing end of life banknotes and the Banco Central de Reserva del Perú have recently conducted a composting test with the waste from banknotes withdrawn from circulation at the Control Ambiental plant.

Giesecke+Devrient held its Currency Technology Symposium 2023 in July in Munich. Normally a biennial event, this is the first to be held since 2019 due to COVID, and was attended by more than 300 customers from central banks, printworks and commercial cash handling industry.

On 17 July the Central Bank of Lesotho unveiled its first Green Banknote, in commemoration of the 60th birthday of the King of Lesotho, His Majesty King Letsie III, who has reigned since 1996.