Latest News

Astrid Mitchell

1 Feb. 2023

4 min read

20 Years of Currency News – Here’s to the Next 20

January 2023 marks the 20th birthday of Currency News™, so we thought we would take a quick tour of the last two decades and provide a back-of-the-envelope analysis of the differences in the cash ecosystem, and issues and priorities, between then and now.

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Astrid Mitchell

22 Dec. 2022

4 min read

2022 – An Annus Horribilis?

There was a palpable sense of optimism as 2021 concluded that – despite disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns and a virus on the march again – things were finally improving and would start going back to where they were, or at the very least, to somewhere different but nevertheless better than the previous two years.

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Astrid Mitchell

4 Nov. 2022

4 min read

Cooperating to Secure Cash

One of the defining characteristics of the mint industry, compared with the banknote industry, is the level of cooperation between the various producers. Another has been its apparent stability. Perhaps the two are related.

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Astrid Mitchell

30 Aug. 2022

4 min read

This is What a Crumbling Cash Infrastructure Looks Like

Most of us will have our own experience of what it is like to be in a situation where you can neither access cash nor pay with it.

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Astrid Mitchell

1 Aug. 2022

4 min read

Little Surprise About Demise of Papermakers

There was palpable shock and surprise in the industry at the news that Portals is to wind down production of banknote paper, focusing instead on non-banknote paper and features.

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Astrid Mitchell

1 June 2022

3 min read

The Cash Industry’s Concerns – Then and Now

In his review of the Global Currency Forum, Wolfram Seidemann, Chairman of the ICA, compared the priorities of the cash industry in the past with today. Then, he said, the key priorities were security, efficiency and quality of notes is circulation. Fast forward several years, and the priorities look very different now.

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Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

4 min read

Moving Sustainability Centre Stage

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.

Comment Sustainability

Kerre Corbin

3 March 2022

5 min read

Why Perception Studies Need to Be Considered in a Wider Context

One the sessions at the Banknote & Currency Conference was ‘Perception Studies: Producing Actionable Information to Support Data-Driven Decision Making’, in the context of: what are the most effective features on a banknote? What do people use to authenticate them? What captures their attention and how do we know?

Comment Studies, Reports

Astrid Mitchell

3 March 2022

4 min read

Understanding an Industry

All too often notifications arrive about a new study into an aspect of the cash industry, the cash cycle or payments. The trouble is that if it is written by an industry-insider, the competitive value is so high that the document has to talk in bland generalisations.

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Astrid Mitchell

3 March 2022

2 min read

The Importance of Cash in War

War is brutal and yet here we are with war in Europe. Unbelievable. Yet again though, it underlines the need for cash. The run up to the war saw cyber-attacks on the Ukrainian ATM network and now the invasion has started the internet is not guaranteed, let alone power. Once again, cash is king.

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Astrid Mitchell

31 Jan. 2022

4 min read

Sustainability Starts with Central Banks

We have covered a number of initiatives by central banks and suppliers (individually or collectively through their associations) to reduce the environmental impact of cash, and will continue to do so.

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Astrid Mitchell

23 Dec. 2021

5 min read

Headlines of 2021 - That Was the Year That Was…

A review of this year's headlines.

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Astrid Mitchell

23 Dec. 2021

4 min read

2021: A Groundhog Year

2021 ended much as it began – disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns, a virus on the march. However, the two trends where momentum is gathering and real change is beginning to happen are in access to cash and the green revolution.

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Astrid Mitchell

28 Oct. 2021

4 min read

Hot Air, Hard Data

COP 26 is taking place next week in the UK. The leaders of the world will be in attendance (most of them at least – the Russian and Chinese presidents aren’t turning up) along with around 30,000 others – from negotiators and journalists to lobbyists, NGOs, businesses and even protesters – from 200 or so countries.

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Tod Niedeck

17 Oct. 2021

5 min read

Sustainability: A Hallmark of Cash

An early memory, when beginning my career at Crane Currency, was noticing long rows of steaming compost in the fields adjacent to the company’s banknote paper mills. I learned that much of this organic material was made up of solids from the papermaking process – cotton and flax ‘fines’ that, when mixed with other field and yard waste, produced a rich and valuable compost.

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Astrid Mitchell

29 Sept. 2021

4 min read

After the Pandemic – What Next for the Cash Industry?

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.

Comment COVID-19

Andrea Nitsche

19 Sept. 2021

10 min read

Why Cash Matters – Not Despite but Because of COVID

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.

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Astrid Mitchell

26 Aug. 2021

4 min read

All Eyes on COP 26 and Climate Change

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.

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Bernd Kümmerle

28 June 2021

6 min read

Before, During and After the Pandemic – Measures Taken, Lessons Learned

I have had the dubious pleasure of having been part of G+D’s global Corona crisis team for the past 15 months, during which time I have had the chance to gain live insight into what has been happening with the more than 11,500 people at the more than 50 sites of our company group worldwide and at our customer sites in almost all countries on this planet during the crisis.

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Astrid Mitchell

28 June 2021

4 min read

When is a Counterfeit not a Counterfeit? We Need to Know!

Counterfeiting is a sensitive subject. Without counterfeiters most of us would not have a job, but central banks have a difficult line to walk. They need the public to check their banknotes, but equally they need the public to trust and have confidence in their currency.

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