Koenig and Bauer Banknote Solutions has just completed a series of showcase events for customers called ‘Open House’. Structured as a morning of presentations followed by equipment demonstrations, the day was focused on the practical, the tangible and improving those elements of business that are within the control of K&B BNS.

Nominations will be open on 8 June for the 16th round of the ‘Excellence in Currency: 2022 Coin Awards’, run by IACA (the International Association of Currency Affairs) and sponsored by Currency News.

In his review of the Global Currency Forum, Wolfram Seidemann, Chairman of the ICA, compared the priorities of the cash industry in the past with today. Then, he said, the key priorities were security, efficiency and quality of notes is circulation. Fast forward several years, and the priorities look very different now.

The official launch ceremony for a new security document printing facility has taken place in Entebbe in Uganda. It will be owned and operated by the Uganda Security Printing Company, which was set up in 2018 as a joint venture between the state-owned Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation and Veridos, the German provider of integrated identity solutions.

Among the customary technical presentations and product launches at conferences, the one given by Komori at the recent Global Currency Forum on the topic of the metaverse was very much ‘out of the box’. Here Steve Craig of Komori explains what the metaverse is, and how Komori is looking at harnessing it for banknote production.

A new security thread featuring micro-optics was launched at the Global Currency Forum by Portals. Called Motus, the thread is the first security product to be launched by Portals following its acquisition last year of the security features and thread business Fabriano from Fedrigoni.

The last major industry event to take place before COVID hit was High Security Printing™ EMEA, which was held in Lisbon in March 2020. The latest HSP EMEA opens it doors from 13-15 June in Tallinn in Estonia, renowned at that time of year for its ‘White Nights’ when the sun scarcely sets.

The global independent think tank CashEssentials has announced the launch of the CashTech Innovation Awards, to recognise innovations that will facilitate access to and acceptance of cash.

The Central Bank of Barbados has unveiled the designs of its new polymer banknote series, which will be introduced on 5 December, two days after it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

It was a long-time coming, but following two years of delays and a last-minute change of venue, the inaugural Global Currency Forum finally went ahead in early May in Port Aventura in Spain.

Giesecke+ Devrient launched its Green Banknote Initiative earlier this year. At the Global Currency Forum, it followed this up with the presentation of the Green Banknote - a physical token of this initiative printed on Hybrid ADDvance®.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina Argentina has showcased the designs of its new series of banknotes, in which the images of indigenous fauna and their habitats that feature on the current series will be replaced by famous Argentineans.

After a three year gap, the Coin Conference returns this October to Amsterdam, in what will be the sixth edition of the event, and the only one of its kind to focus on coins as part of cash strategies in circulation from the perspective of currency issuers.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued its annual report for 2021-22. The backdrop for the year was India’s second and third wave of the pandemic, which affected operations.

The primary focus of the 6th IBDC taking place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 24-27 October 2022 is ‘Design Community Reconnect’.

Benjamin Diokno, Governor of the Bankgo Sentral ng Pilipinas, will join the incoming government as Finance Minister. His replacement will be Felipe Medalla.

Following the return of in-person events, one company that has been prominent with its range of eye-catching optically variable features is IQ Structures, which specialises in lithography techniques, 3D nano-printing and industrial replication of nanostructured materials.

BP Security is the new name for the security papermaker in Brazil, the only one in Latin America capable of producing banknote-grade mould made paper, formerly owned by Fedrigoni.

The UK’s Royal Mint has announced plans to build a new plant in Llantrisant, South Wales, to recover gold from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

In early June Currency Research will host its first in person Cash Cycle Seminar since COVID forced a postponement of the planned March 2020 event in Amsterdam.