The Bank of Zambia has announced the introduction of a new family of notes and coins, which will be introduced at the end of March.

2025 heralds the Year of the Snake in the traditional Chinese zodiac calendar. In December 2024, the People’s Bank of China announced the issue of a commemorative 20 yuan banknote for the 2025 Chinese Zodiac New Year.

554,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in 2024, according to the European Central Bank. This is an increase of more than 18% compared with 2023, and resulted in a ratio of 18 ppm, compared with 16 ppm the previous year.

A new white paper investigates how cash management is changing and best practice for optimising efficiency, thereby reducing the cost and environmental impact of cash.

This year’s Regional Banknote the Year Awards for EMEA were presented at a special ceremony during the HSP conference dinner in the traditional Safran Zunft restaurant in the heart of Basel’s charming Old Town.

President Trump’s announcement of a directive to the US Treasury Secretary to cease production of the country’s lowest denomination coin, as part of his mission to cut government expenditure, has reignited the debate in the US about the future of the penny, which has been rumbling on for well over a decade now.

Continuing with the periodic series of articles covering cash information in central bank annual reports, this month we travel to Korea, and also to South America, with a review of two countries, one small and stable (Uruguay) and the other larger and not so stable (Venezuela).

The Bank of China and Banco Nacional Ultramarino – Macau’s two note issuing banks – have introduced new 50 and 100 pataca (MOP) banknotes. They are the third and fourth notes in the new Macau series, following the issue of new MOP 10 and 20 notes last year.

A new white paper examines the cash cycle from the perspective of every stakeholder, drawing on interviews and discussions with the 24 organisations that contributed to it. It contains examples and information from around the world, from small and large countries, emerging market and advanced economies and all types of stakeholder.

The Central Bank of Belize has unveiled the designs of its new banknote series, which will go into circulation in June.

At the end of November last year, the EMEA Cash Cycle & Payments Seminar took place in Cape Town, South Africa. Organised by Currency Research, the seminar was one of the best-attended regional cash events in recent years, with over 245 delegates from various sectors, including central banks, commercial banks, cash-in-transit companies, and technology providers.

Chris Skinner, an independent commentator on the financial markets, blogger and author, has written an interesting piece about how technology is changing the way business is delivered. He wrote it about how the digital bank model needs to change, but how might this apply to the world of cash?

The next edition of the Intergraf Currency+Identity conference, which has been connecting technological innovators and institutional end users since 1976, takes place in Milan from 3-5 March.

Danmarks Nationalbank has signed an agreement with FNMT–RCM for the production of Danish coins over the next four years.

Komori has released its Integrated Report 2024, a detailed overview of the company’s financial and non-financial performance, along with its plans to create long-term value through innovation, sustainability, and global expansion.

Shaktikanta Das has been replaced as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India by Sanjay Malhotra, former Revenue Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

On 12 December De La Rue made known that it had entered talks with a consortium to sell up to 40% of its equity, which would value the company at about £245 million.

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has announced a new partnership with enim Technologies, which extracts precious metals from e-waste, to explore the possibility of incorporating these metals into the Mint’s future coin production.

Last year, Currency News reported on the introduction of a new polymer substrate for banknotes — POLYSECURE — from Q&T Hi-Tech Polymer Co. Ltd, a Vietnamese manufacturer. Luong Ngoc Anh, the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Q&T, was interviewed at the High-Security Printing Conference Asia in Bangkok, Thailand, to gain insights into the company's journey and aspirations.

Due to its relative ubiquity, ppm serves as a useful means of comparing trends both within and between countries. But as a metric it has its shortcomings. This article examines some of those shortcomings and proposes an alternative method based on the number of banknotes used for cash transactions.