This is now the seventh Industry Watch, covering 21 months, where COVID-19 has been the main issue influencing market values and trends. Given the differing impact of COVID at a given time on regions and industries and, as we are entering the last quarter of 2021, it is useful to compare the performance year to date in both our usual selected world markets and separately in markets in some other countries.

Close on the heels of Guatemala, another country in Latin America that has issued a commemorative banknote to celebrates its bicentennial this year is the Bank of Mexico, with a new 20 peso. The latest GUARDIAN® polymer banknote issued in the Bank’s G series of notes, the new 20 pesos depicts the Army of the Three Guaranties (Religion, Union and Independence) entering Mexico City on 27 September 1821.

De La Rue has announced a major upgrade to its existing facilities in Malta, to turn them into a 29,000 m² state-of-the-art manufacturing site. This investment is supported by Malta’s economic development agency, Malta Enterprise, and the Maltese government.

Goznak is a joint stock company in which the sole shareholder is the Russian government. It competes in both Russian and global markets for security products, with a portfolio ranging from banknotes and banknote paper, circulating and commemorative coins, identity documents, excise and postage stamps to, more recently, digital technologies.

Cash Processing Solutions (CPS) has announced a multimillion-pound contract to supply Single Note Inspection Systems to the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL).

Following its AGM, the International Currency Association has elected three new Board members – Sam Keayes (Crane Currency), Etienne Couëlle (Oberthur Fiduciaire) and Roberto Salgari (Parvis).

We normally reserve the crystal ball gazing in Currency News™ for the end of the year, but the pandemic is no respecter of editorial calendars, and the consequences of the pandemic on our industry will last long beyond the next calendar year.

Japan’s National Printing Bureau has started producing new 10,000 yen banknotes, which are expected to enter circulation in the first half of 2024. A special ceremony was held to mark the start of production, attended by Finance Minister Aso Taro.

The International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) held its Excellence in Currency awards ceremony on 23 September, at which it presented the eight nominations and announced the winners of the ‘Best Currency Initiative Implemented in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic’.

Despite the obstacles associated with bringing a six-person technical team to Melbourne from Milan, not to mention the delays caused by the blockage of the Suez Canal, Parvis has successfully delivered a new ABACO-MES to Note Printing Australia within the planned four-month timeframe.

2021 is a profoundly important year for much of Central America. Guatemala celebrates its bicentennial, recognising 200 years of independence from Spain, declared on 15 September 1821 in what is known as the Act of Independence of Central America.

In 1987, Morocco established its own national banknote printing and minting company, Dar As-Sikkah, a department of the central bank (Bank Al-Maghrib) responsible for printing banknotes, minting coins, and producing secure documents.

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.

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.

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.

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.