News in Brief

SICPA Inaugurates New Campus

SICPA has formally inaugurated the unlimitrust campus, the world’s first centre of excellence dedicated to the Economy of Trust which is assembling innovation players into one single community.

The aim of the new campus is to bring together partners promoting the Economy of Trust’, linking the security of the physical world with its digital counterpart in order to protect goods and people from the vulnerabilities created by today’s global digitalised economy and governance.

As such, the new campus will serve as a centre of excellence that will bring together SICPA employees with start-ups, companies, investors, entrepreneurs, academics and other stakeholders in the field of trust technologies.

‘The unlimitrust campus embodies SICPA’s desire to create a safer, more reliable world for everyone through collaboration and the pooling of multiple areas of expertise,’ said Philippe Amon, Chairman and CEO of SICPA, at the inauguration.

The community of innovators is managed by the Economy of Trust Foundation, a SICPA initiative. It will eventually offer programmes to foster innovation and organise events on campus and beyond, working with the Canton of Vaud, its innovation and investment promotion agency Innovaud and the EPFL Innovation Park (EIP).

Netherlands Turns to Legislation to Safeguard Cash

The Dutch Finance Minister has proposed legislation to ensure the provision of cash facilities, at least to a basic level. The legislation builds on the results of a PwC study on the future structure of the system for banknote and coin deposits and withdrawals for consumers and retailers.

The Minister of Finance and the Dutch National Bank (DNB) believe it is in the public interest that cash continues to function effectively as a means of payment, even if its use continues to decline in the future.

In April 2022, organisations and groups involved in the Dutch cash payment system reached agreements in the Cash Covenant. The Minister decided to propose legislative measures to anchor these agreements in statute.

DNB wants the Cash Covenant to remain in place until the legislation comes into force. It expects all parties to the Covenant to fulfil their civic responsibility by continuing to respect the agreements made for the smooth functioning of the payment system.

Digimarc Secures Contract to Track Metals

Digimarc Corporation has announced a major new five-year contract worth more than $32 million with an international organisation to protect the authenticity of precious metals and building materials and guard the integrity of a national deposit-return system for recycling.

Under the deal, the Digimarc Illuminate platform will protect the authenticity of gold, silver, platinum, and other precious metals.

The Illuminate platform comprises a unique identifier (eg. digital watermark or QR code) assigned or attached to each item with a digital twin providing a cloud-based record of the item’s journey and interactions and delivering new information at every touchpoint across its lifecycle.

Digimarc is a leading provider of product digitisation solutions, and for decades has delivered technologies deterring counterfeiting of currency for a global group of central banks, a relationship which was recently extended through the end of this decade (see CN December 2022).

US Coin Production Hits 14-Month High

There appears to be no let-up in demand for circulating coins in the US, despite expectations that the shortages resulting from COVID-induced disruption to normal pathways for coin recirculation would ameliorate once the country opened up again.

In May, 1.4 billion circulating coins were struck at the Denver and Philadelphia mints, representing increases of 13.4% from April and 12.9% from May 2022. This marks the fifth straight month in which the 1 billion production level has been exceeded.

The output for the first five months of the year, at 6.1 billion coins, is nearly 8% ahead of 2022 levels.

If the current production pace were to continue through to December, the annual mintage for 2023 would exceed 14.6 billion coins. In comparison, the US Mint produced 13.6 billion coins for circulation in 2022.

World’s Foggiest ATM

27 June was World ATM Day, being the day (back in 1967) that the first ATM was opened, in a branch of Barclays Bank in London.

To mark the occasion, the ATM Appreciation Society – which describes ATMs as the world’s first example of fintech – announced ‘The World’s Foggiest ATM’ as its ATM of the year, commenting ‘try ram-raiding that with smoke and smart-water in your eyes!’ 

For more information and examples of extreme ATMs, visit https://atmas.org/extreme.

Spectra Hits Milestones for Sensors

Spectra Systems, one of a handful of providers of forensic level taggants and readers for banknotes, has announced a $1.9 million contract to develop and produce three online quality control units for a central bank.

Under the contract, the company said it has also achieved two sensor development milestones worth a combined $2.7 million, which was initially announced in October 2020.

These milestones were related to the approval of an alpha phase unit successfully operating on the new sorting machines being acquired by the central bank customer, Spectra said, adding that the contract, and payments, were included in its financial projections for 2023, so will solidify its expectations for its full year results.