HSP Awards Celebrate Best in Class of 2021

In the absence in 2021 of the HSP (High Security Print) Awards, which are normally held three times a year to coincide with the three regional HSP conferences (for Asia, EMEA and Latin America respectively), HSP organiser Reconnaissance International held a series of virtual awards instead.

‘The Regional Banknote & ID Document of the Year Awards 2021’, to give the ceremony its proper title, was streamed online on 16 December. The awards were divided by region (Asia, EMEA and Latin America) and, for banknotes, into three categories (Best New Banknote, Best New Banknote Series and Best New Commemorative Banknote).

The regional Banknote of the Year Award recognises outstanding achievement in the design, technical sophistication and security of a banknote or banknote series, the key judging criteria being that successful banknotes should combine visual artistry and high levels of technical and security sophistication, with particular emphasis placed on the relevance of the overall design and symbolism.

The independent judging panel included David Tidmarsh (Chairman of Currency Publications – publisher of Currency News), Mark Stevenson (President of the International Banknote Designers Association), Lydia Yip (former Head of the Currency Division, Hong Kong Monetary Authority), Lahcen Hadouni (former Director General of the Moroccan printworks Dar as-Sikkah) and Francisco Mandiola (former Managing Director of Casa de Moneda Chile).

The winners for the banknote awards are below.

Asia

Best New Banknote – the Reserve Bank of Australia for the new Australian $100, the culmination of the country’s new 2nd generation polymer series. It was produced on CCL Secure’s GUARDIAN™ polymer by Note Printing Australia and features a top-to-bottom transparent window overlaid with a KINEGRAM ZERO.ZERO® registered stripe that can be viewed from either side of the banknote.

Best New Commemorative Banknote – the Reserve Bank of Fiji, for the $50, issued to mark the country’s 50th anniversary of independence. Produced by De La Rue on SAFEGUARD®, it was the world’s first carbon-neutral banknote. 

EMEA

Best New Banknote – the Bank of England for the English £50, the last in its new polymer series, featuring the father of modern computing, Alan Turing. The note was designed and produced by De La Rue at the Bank of England Printing Works on both GUARDIAN and SAFEGUARD substrate, and features a KINEGRAM COLORS® registered stripe.

Best New Banknote Series – Qatar Central Bank for the Qatari 5th series, an integrated family of banknotes with a number of advanced security features, including some – eg. the embedded stripe NEXUS™ – appearing for the first time in circulating banknotes. The producer was, again, De La Rue.

Best New Commemorative Banknote – the Bank of Namibia for the 30 dollar note celebrating 30 years of independence. Prominent on the note is the image of the black rhino, one of the world’s most endangered species (with some of the proceeds from the sale of the notes being donated to wildlife conservation). The note was designed by CCL Secure and printed on GUARDIAN by Oberthur Fiduciaire.

Latin America

Best New Banknote – the Central Bank of Costa Rica for the new 20,000 colones, a stand-out banknote in terms of design and security. It was printed by Oberthur Fiduciaire.

Best New Banknote Series – again, the Central Bank of Costa Rica, this time for the entire new series, featuring flora and fauna and a wealth of new features that, in the view of the judges, clearly states ‘this is us, this is our country’. Along with the 20,000 colones, the 2,000 and 5,000 notes were printed by Oberthur Fiduciaire. The 1,000 and 10,000 colones were printed by Orell Füssli. The designer and substrate supplier was CCL Secure. The top two denominations feature a KINEGRAM REVIEW® stripe from KURZ which, in a first for the technology, feature a different registered images on either side.

Best New Commemorative Banknote – Banco de Mexico for the Mexican 20 peso issued (as with the other award-winning banknotes) to commemorate the anniversary of independence, in this case 200 years. The GUARDIAN note was printed by the Bank of Mexico Printing Works.

The award ceremony concluded with the invitation to all participants to gather, travel restrictions permitting, at the forthcoming HSP conferences in 2022 in Latin America (March in Mexico City), EMEA (June in Estonia) and Asia (December in Sri Lanka).

The awards ceremony can be viewed here.