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

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.

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 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.

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.

Oberthur Fiduciaire has launched a technology for threads in the form of RELIEF™ – which offers striking bas-relief 3D effects in what the company terms a major advance in security features for threads and unlike anything else on the market.

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.

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.

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish and Recycle are the five widely-accepted elements of a circular economy. This article from CCL Secure covers three of them.

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2021 in financial terms as one of the most successful in its history. Sales of €2.38 billion were a 2.8% improvement on the previous year and almost back at the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

The European Council has adopted a recommendation by the European Commission on the conversion of hryvnia banknotes into the currency of member states hosting people escaping the war in Ukraine.

Across industry publications, conferences and reporting, sustainability now sits alongside other key topics such as security, technical excellence, efficiency, value for money etc. This industry has done a great deal of work and made a real difference in its operations across the key areas where it affects the environment.

Crane Co – the US-based industrial products and processes conglomerate – has announced plans to separate the company into two independent publicly-traded companies.

The Mint Directors Conference is normally held every two years, providing an opportunity for discussions, information-sharing and debate within and about the industry.

As described in the Banknote of the Month feature in the February issue of Currency News™, Kazakhstan’s new 20,000 tenge is memorable on a number of fronts – not least because the use of the Durasafe® substrate enabled the first ever application of a stripe in a vertical orientation, but also because it is the world’s first circulating note to incorporate SICPA’s new SPARK Flow® feature.

In their mandate to help maintain economic stability and confidence in the currency, central banks must continually evaluate the cash cycle imperatives and pressures for business and community in their countries.