COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the global poor. It has also strongly impacted the lives of many women, and, as a consequence, children, the world over. For everyone thus affected by COVID-19, cash is often a lifeline, a means of support, of escape and maintaining personal freedom, of independence and of securing livelihoods.

The acceleration of the paradoxical cash developments during the ongoing pandemic, namely the decline in cash usage at point of sale accompanied by surge in cash holdings, was addressed in the June issue of Currency News.

A new report published last month – ‘Catch Me (If You Can): Assessing the Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission via Euro Cash’ – by the European Central Bank (ECB) sought to answer key questions such as, how long do coronaviruses remain infectious on banknotes and coins? Is it possible to become infected through contact with cash?

This March, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) issued its new $5 polymer banknote into circulation, completing the transition of the Eastern Caribbean dollar to De La Rue’s SAFEGUARD® polymer that began in 2019. According to the ECCB, the reasons for the transition were threefold – the environment, cost, and security.

The International Currency Association (ICA) was founded in 2016 to create a single, cohesive voice for the currency industry. Its principal objective has been, and continues to be, to make the case for cash as a public good at an industry, public and political level, and to demonstrate that cash is a vital part of the present and future payment landscape.

In the Banknote of the Month feature in last month’s Currency News™, we covered the Central Bank of Honduras’ new 200 lempira note which, among other features, is the first in the world to incorporate a registered Galaxy® thread. In this article, Louisenthal explains the significance of this new advance in thread technology.

The Bank of Guatemala has published the designs of its new commemorative 20 quetzales banknote and 1 quetzal coin marking the country’s bicentennial anniversary. This will be the first commemorative banknote in the Bank’s history.

The International Banknote Designers Association (IBDA) has launched a series of New Perspective webinars to keep the industry focused on the wider perspectives regarding innovation and emerging trends, threats and challenges to banknotes, and the ‘bigger picture’ on payments and emerging technologies.

Cash & Payment News™ didn’t go on holiday in August. Instead, it has focused on the environment, the importance of inclusion, a paper by ESTA on access to cash, a country profile of cash in Rwanda, a study of cash in Italy and the review of a BIS paper on CBDC privacy.

CCL Secure is cementing its leading position in polymer production for banknotes with major additions to the capabilities of its production lines. The company is investing £9.5 million to include support for its latest two innovations.

Jens Eberhardt, Managing Director of Cashinfrapro, has written a paper – ‘Green Cash Logistics’ – which considers how modern ways of working can reduce the environmental impact of the cash cycle. This article, which appeared in sister publication Cash & Payment News™, is a summary of the paper.

Mint & Print (MAP), the biennial industry conference previously run by the Banque du Liban in Beirut, is back for 2021, but this time taking place in Dubai.

With six weeks to go the CBDC Conference, which takes place online from 4-6 October, some 40 central banks have registered to attend and to listen to the 50 speakers who are confirmed in the programme.

The recent meeting of the G7 (Group of Seven, an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US) held in the UK prompted De La Rue to look at the banknotes of the participating countries, which threw up some interesting divergences in their approaches to banknote security.

Optical security feature provider Nanotech Security Corporation has agreed to be acquired by Meta Materials, a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites, for nearly C$91 million.

On 1 November the latest UN Climate Change meeting, COP 26, starts in Glasgow in the UK. We can expect significant press interest and focus on the event in particular, and the environment in general.

Hungary’s central bank – Magyar Nemzeti Bank – has released a series of six new commemorative coins to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the introduction of the forint.

The next webinar from the MDC (Mint Directors Conference) takes place on 16 September on the topic of ‘What is the Cost to Consumers and Society of Cash v the Cost of ‘Electronic’ / Digital Payments?’

The German company ZEISER, which provides impact and non-impact serialisation solutions and services to the security printing industry, has acquired the document inspection and track and trace software solutions of Inspectron, UK.

The Central Bank of Chile is urging citizens to ferret out any spare change they may have lying around amid a national shortage of coins. In a series of recent Twitter posts, the central bank warned that ‘COVID-19 had affected the circulation of cash’ and hurt small retail vendors.