The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has issued its first quarterly bulletin this month, which includes an article detailing the Next Generation Banknote Project. Australia, which issued its first polymer banknotes in 1992, announced in 2012 that they were to begin planning a new banknote series in order to deter counterfeits in circulation “consistent with…
Cabot Corporation has entered into an agreement with SICPA to sell its Security Materials business for approximately US $20 million in cash consideration. Cabot, headquartered in Boston, is a global speciality chemicals and performance materials company. Cabot’s Security Materials, based in Albuquerque, USA, produces anti-counterfeit covert taggant applications. SICPA, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, is a…
Giesecke and Devrient (G&D) have won the 2014 IF Product Design Award, with their BPS X9 single note inspection system being selected as the winning product. The BPS X9 inspects banknote printing quality on a note-by-note basis, ensuring each printed note that is produced meets quality standards before it is released into the cash cycle.…
After a six month exercise led by its Executive Committee, the Bank of England launched its Strategic Plan yesterday. The Bank’s Governor, Mark Carney, has set out 15 initiatives to reshape the Bank which are to be implemented during the next three years. Most notably for the banknote industry, Victoria Cleland (former Head of Notes…
The Royal Mint has produced a prototype for a replacement £1 coin with the aim of reducing counterfeit coins in circulation. The coin will include the Royal Mint’s new security feature, iSIS (Integrated Secure Identification Systems), which “involves the application of an existing security technology that has been proven over decades in banknotes”. The Mint…
On Friday 14 March David Beeby, CEO of Innovia Group, confirmed that Innovia Security will be providing polymer substrates to the Bank of England (BoE) for the new £5 and £10 banknotes. A statement by Mr Beeby was posted on the Innovia Films website : “We are delighted that the contract with the Bank of…
A statement by the Royal Canadian Mint has announced that it has produced a new series of coins for the Central Bank of Botswana. The entire series of coins use the Canadian bank’s multi-ply plating technology – consisting of alternating layers of metal such as nickel, copper and brass plated over a steel core –…
The UK Payments Council has announced they are to launch a new way to pay using a mobile phone number. The app, called “Paym”, is expected to be launched in April 2014 and will enable users to send and receive payments using just a mobile number. Customers of Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society,…
The Bank of England has launched an interactive app for smartphones enabling users to identify security features used in banknotes. The app is for iOS and Android devices and can is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play free of charge. The Bank of England say the app is aimed at…
Following the recent closure of bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, another bitcoin exchange company has been attacked by hackers. On March 3rd, Canada-based bitcoin exchange Flexcoin closed down after flaws in its software were discovered. A statement from Flexcoin’s website advises that the exchange was attached by hackers and 896 bitcoins were stolen, worth around US…