January 2023 marks the 20th birthday of Currency News™, so we thought we would take a quick tour of the last two decades and provide a back-of-the-envelope analysis of the differences in the cash ecosystem, and issues and priorities, between then and now.

Croatia joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2023, bringing the number of European Union member states using the single European currency to 20.

The National Company for Advanced Industries and Integrated Strategic Printing Solutions (NASPS) unites the production of a wide range of ID and travel documents, excise stamps, holograms, security paper, payment cards, personalisation systems and the development of information systems and storage under one roof.

Koenig and Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBNS) has signed a new partnership with the virtual ATM company SONECT as part of its strategy to help reinvent the way we move, access and manage cash in society.

The COVID-delayed African Currency Forum finally took place two years and a few months later than originally planned in Luxor, Egypt from 15-18 January, attracting 305 delegates from 46 countries, including 25 central banks and state printworks from Africa itself.

Sustainability as a concept has been best defined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.

Bulgaria has signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission and the Eurozone group president, paving the way for the country to start minting its own euro coins once it receives approval for eurozone membership.

There was a palpable sense of optimism as 2021 concluded that – despite disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns and a virus on the march again – things were finally improving and would start going back to where they were, or at the very least, to somewhere different but nevertheless better than the previous two years.

In November 2022, Algeria’s central bank, the Banque d’Algérie, issued a new 2,000 dinar banknote to commemorate 60 years of Algerian independence and to mark the occasion of the 31st Summit of the League of Arab States, which was hosted in Algiers.

The new look of banknotes featuring the image of King Charles has been unveiled by the Bank of England. The portrait will be the only change to existing designs of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes and will start to enter circulation from mid 2024.

Digimarc Corporation has announced a five-year extension of its agreement with the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, comprising 35 of the world’s central banks.

Kusters, a family-owned company founded in 1911, has been at the forefront of destruction and shred handling equipment for both banknotes and coins since the 1970s, and has an installed base of more than 700 systems in various applications in over 80 countries.

A group of organisations from both the coin and banknote sectors have joined forces to support a first-of-its-kind in-depth study into the environmental impact of cash versus digital payments.

In the full year, only three markets were less than 10% lower compared with the beginning of the year, eight lost between 10% and 20%, and three lost between 20% and 30%.

The European Union has announced a set of new directives to limit the amount of cash and crypto transactions in a move, it says, that will crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The BEAC (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale) has now introduced its new series of banknotes, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its foundation.

A review of this year's headlines.

The Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) has approved De La Rue’s near-term science-based emissions reduction target.

Banque du Liban is issuing an updated 100,000 livres banknote as part of an ongoing upgrade that has seen the replacement of the threads in several of the notes in the series with RAPID® micro-optics threads from Crane.

De La Rue’s results for the first half of the current financial year – 2022/23 – saw sales and profits fall, along with a reduced overall profit guidance for the full year.