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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is preparing to launch a new pilot project using QR code-based Coin Vending Machines (QCVM) in order to improve coin distribution in the country.

Nanotechnology has been a fertile breeding ground for authentication devices – as structures that can be controlled at the nanoscale exhibit responses to light that are distinctive and near impossible to replicate.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), National Bank of Poland (NBP) and Note Printing Australia (NPA) were winners in three of the 25 Central Banking Awards 2023, which were announced recently.

The International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) has announced the finalists for the 2023 Excellence in Currency Awards, which are in four categories.

The Central Bank of Curaçao and St Maarten (CBCS) has said it expects that the introduction of the new Caribbean guilder will be completed in the second half of 2024. The new currency will replace the Netherlands Antillean guilder that has been in circulation since 1952.

The Central Bank of The Bahamas was awarded the 2023 Public First Award during the event’s Appreciation Dinner on 14 March, in a ceremony at the Xara Lodge, Rabat, Malta.

Voith Group includes Voith Paper, which is well known in the banknote paper making world as the manufacturer of paper machines. In its 2022 Sustainability Report it gives details of its ‘Papermaking for Life’ programme designed to contribute to more sustainable paper production.