There was palpable shock and surprise in the industry at the news that Portals is to wind down production of banknote paper, focusing instead on non-banknote paper and features.

Compared with the resources of the cashless lobby in advocating for a digital payments future, those of the lobby supporting cash are miniscule. That isn’t to say that there aren’t organisations supporting the case for cash, but their activities are largely centered around specific regions or sectors.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has recently commented about options for its denominational structure, following ‘fake news’ that it is planning to introduce a new high denomination R500 note and R10 coin.

Austrian foil manufacturer Hueck Folien has erected a new 400 kWp photovoltaic Wp system on its Baumgartenberg premises, with an output equivalent to the energy consumption of 100 households.

On 26 July, De La Rue announced that it is terminating its ten year supply agreement with Portals Paper five years early, an agreement that formed part of private equity-backed management buyout of the paper maker in 2018.

It’s official – Croatia has been given the green light to adopt the euro as its currency. On 12 July the Council of the European Union formally approved its accession to the euro area on 1 January 2023.

The Banque de France (BdF) has announced that the construction of a new banknote printworks on the same site as its paper mill in Vic-le-Comte (Europafi) is going ahead, and will be completed in 2026 at a cost of €220 million.

In our February feature on counterfeiting, Duncan Reid covered adversarial analysis. In this article he reviews the classification of counterfeiters, illustrated by case studies at each level.

Several studies have revealed how overt security features are not only more efficient, but are easy to recognise and authenticate, when they are well integrated in the banknote design.

In May, we covered Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions’ two offerings for app-based banknote authentication and education. This month it is the turn of two more – from De Nederlandsche Bank and Orell Füssli Security Printing.

Counterfeiting of Australian banknotes is approaching its lowest level in a decade. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has carried out an analysis of the factors playing a role in this decline and quantified their effects. The report – Recent Trends in Counterfeiting – has been published in its June Bulletin.

The prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing EMEA conference.

The Bank of England has issued its Annual Report for 2022. The key themes relating to banknote issuance and management were the completion of the polymer series of banknotes with the issuance of the £50 banknote, actions to safeguard access to cash and deposit services and the environmental impact of banknote operations.

Ulster Bank, one of Northern Ireland’s three note issuing bank, has now released its new £50, the design of which focuses on the province’s industries and the achievements of women in Northern Ireland.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has launched a special series of coins to mark the country’s 75th anniversary of independence, at a special ceremony organised by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Currency Affairs.

Not many people know that Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering (Kusters) used to make fluorescent lamp recycling equipment for the electronics giant Philips, glass recycling for the brewer Heineken and coffee pod recycling for Sara Lee.

The Asia Cash Cycle Seminar returns to its live and in person format, after a three-year hiatus, taking place 5-7 September in Manila, 10 years after it was last held in the Philippines.

SICPA’s IMMERSION event this year, which took place via a series of one-day workshops spanning April and May, focused on the future and features, with innovation as the constant theme throughout.

27 June is World ATM Day. On this day 55 years ago, the world’s first 24/7 cash machine, or Automated Teller Machine as it was later to become known, was unveiled in London.

The Future of Cash conference, which returns this year as an in-person event taking place 14-16 September in Madrid, was the first of its kind to bring together all stakeholders involved in the cash cycle.