On 21 December, the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) launched a significantly upgraded series of banknotes, with dynamic and innovative security threads and advanced security print features.

The Bank of Israel (BOI) held a special ceremony attended by the country’s president to launch a new NIS 5 coin in appreciation of the Israeli health and medical system for their contribution and struggle for the lives and health of Israel’s citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021 ended much as it began – disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns, a virus on the march. However, the two trends where momentum is gathering and real change is beginning to happen are in access to cash and the green revolution.

HM Government of Gibraltar has issued a new £5 note, replacing the previous, larger version. The new £5 was reduced in size to match the UK polymer £5 (albeit it remains on paper) and the colour changed to a vivid green.

More details have emerged about the polymer trial in the Philippines. Delivery of the first batch will be next April. 500 million pieces of 1,000 piso polymer banknotes will be rolled out by the middle of 2022, and the pilot will last for three years.

Euro banknotes are facing a redesign for the first time since their launch two decades ago, with a plan to make the currency ‘more relatable to Europeans of all ages and backgrounds’.

After nearly 40 years at Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions, its Technical Director Johannes Schaede is retiring. Or, rather, semi-retiring – since from January 2022 he will be taking up a new supervisory position with Orell Füssli AG.

While the companies we feature in Industry Watch are being directly affected by COVID-19 trends and issues, they are also subject to market trends. COVID-19 has disrupted global economic stability – raw materials, energy and labour are all in short supply, and inflation is on the rise.

Hard on the heels of the announcement of a multi-million pound contract to supply Single Note Inspection Systems to India, Cash Processing Solutions (CPS) has announced two further major new contracts.

Infrared (IR) is part of the electromagnetic spectrum that lies immediately beyond red light and is therefore invisible to the naked eye. Because of this, IR inks are widely used in the banknote industry to create covert features that are both highly secure and machine readable, particularly by high speed systems.

The value of cash in circulation (CIC) in Uganda grew by 5.6% in 2020/21 to 6.03 trillion Ugandan shillings. Of this, banknotes grew by 6% to 5.83 trillion shillings, and coins by 2.65% to 193 billion shillings.

The digital world has been with us for over 20 years, and it has brought significant benefits, usually related to convenience, choice and cost. Despite that, there are many examples of physical products that are recovering lost ground and increasing sales.

The Bank of Mexico has issued a new 50 pesos, the sixth and final note in its new G series. The front of the new note shows the foundation of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire which, according to legend, was established by the Mexica tribe in the place where they found an eagle devouring a snake.

Sales for De La Rue for the first half of 2021/22 increased by 0.9% to £179.2 million, compared with the first half of 2020/21, according to its recently published interim results. Adjusted operating profit increased by 13.4% to £17.4 million.

There is no longer any doubt that cash as a means of payment is declining – not just in relative but, increasingly, in absolute terms. The recent high demand for banknotes as a store of value only masks the reduction in their use for transactions.

The Dutch National Bank (DNB) spoke at the recent European Cash Cycle seminar (ICCOS) about the McKinsey study commissioned to consider the cash infrastructure that the Netherlands will need for the next 10 years.

CCL Secure’s GUARDIAN™ substrate was the catalyst for the development of the market for polymer banknotes over the past three decades, and it remains a key driver for its continuing growth.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) has submitted its fiscal year 2022 budget request to Congress. The main component of the $1.9 billion requested funds is for special projects. Chief among them is $897 million for the Replacement Production Facility in Beltsville, Maryland.

At the latest count a third of all banknotes contain a diffractive feature, in the form of a patch, stripe or thread, 327 to be precise. According to Frank van der Horst of the DNB in his presentation at the recently-concluded Holography Conference, the feature is the second best in public recognition terms after watermarks – which makes one wonder why the other two thirds of banknotes don’t use one!

The National Bank of Romania has issued a new 20 lei banknote. It is intended to fill the gap between the 10 and 50 lei notes, and to honour a woman for the first time on a circulating note – Ecaterina Teodoroiu, a heroine of World War I.