Following three years of economic struggle and several bailouts totally nearly $800 billion, Greece could reinstitute its old currency should they pull out of the Eurozone.

Hartmut Grossman, an analyst at ICS Risk Advisors, said these plans have been in place since Greece’s first major debt crisis in 2009.

“A lot of the firms, particularly in Europe and also here, have been looking at that for a long time,” he told Reuters. “But there really has been contingency planning at all of the financial institutions for that to happen … Greece leaving the euro zone is not a new idea.”

For their part, the European Union said it wanted Greece to stick with the euro, a multi-country common currency.

According to an article written for the Associated Press by David McHugh, the “great fear” is that if Greece leaves the euro, other troubled Eurozone countries may follow suit.

If the country does return to the drachma, however, it is not a process that can take place over night.

Before banknotes can be processed, they have to be designed, developed and equipped with security features to prevent counterfeiting. These elements must be assembled before being shipped to the paper maker, which can take three to four months. After that, the notes are sent to the security printer who must undergo at least six to eight different processes to get the notes ready for circulation.

Even in the case of a crisis, the minimum time frame to introduce new banknotes into circulation is close to a year.

SOURCES:
Reuters: “Banks Prepare For The Return Of The Drachma”
The Chronicle Herald: “Greece’s Exit From Eurozone On The Table”
The Globe and mail: “Can Printing New Currencies Keep Euro Zone United?”

The new $20 note will feature an updated portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the front and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial on the back. According to a press release, the design of the new $20 banknote is meant to pay “tribute to the contribution and sacrifices of Canadian men and women in all military conflicts.”

Since November 2011, the Bank of Canada has introduced two notes in the polymer series: the $100 note and the $50 note.

The design of previous notes has also paid tribute to Canada’s “spirit of innovation.”

“The new polymer series is itself a technical innovation, and its designs celebrate Canada’s achievements at home, around the world and in space. Reflecting the ingenuity, determination and courage of a nation and its people, Canada’s accomplishments extend well past our frontiers,” says the Bank of Canada’s website.

To date, banknotes in the new series have featured security devices such as raised ink, a large transparent window that also contains a colour-shifting metallic portrait, hidden numbers in the transparent window that match the note’s denomination, transparent text, a frosted maple leaf window that also contains hidden numbers, among others, though specifics on the new $20 banknote security features have yet to be released.

The $20 denomination is the most circulated bill in Canada, and will be introduced into circulation later this year. The last two notes in the series – the $10 and $5 bills – will be released before the end of 2013.

SOURCES:
The Sacramento Bee: “Bank of Canada to Unveil New $20 Polymer Bank Note”
Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters: “New $20 To Be Third Polymer Bill”
Bank of Canada: “Polymer Series (2011)”

The new notes will span all the denominations – 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 & 1,000 kronor – and the design will feature famous Swedes such as film director Ingmar Bergman, children’s author Astrid Lindgren, former United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld, opera singer Birgit Nilsson, film star Greta Garbo, and musician Evert Taube.

The new series was designed by Göran Österlund, whose colourful “Journey of Culture” (Kulturresan) design was selected from among eight finalists in a contest launched by Sweden’s national bank last year.

“It’s been a difficult but stimulating task to pick a winner. All the contestants submitted ambitious and well worked suggestions, but in the end we were captivated by ‘The Cultural Journey’,” said Peter Egardt, a member of the Riksbank board of directors and chair of the banknote design selection jury, in a statement. “The overall impression is a beautiful and user-friendly series of bills which are built on a well-weighed balance between something new and Swedish banknote tradition.”

Österlund said his winning design as was meant to “let the bills take us on a journey from the Öresund Bridge in the south to the Treriksröset in the north,” referencing the “Three Country Cairn” where the borders of Finland, Sweden, and Norway meet, reported The Local.

The new faces won’t be the only adjustment to the banknotes, however. All of the new notes will be equipped with a new security feature known as “Spark” – a device that allows the banknote’s colour to shift when tilted and includes magnetic pigments in the dye that creates an image in certain light.

Higher denominations (100, 200, 500 & 1,000) will have an addition feature called “Motion” which is a window thread embedded into the banknote paper, giving an impression of movement when the banknote is titled. This feature currently exists on the most recent version of the 1,000-krona banknote.

The new series of banknotes will be introduced into circulation in 2015.

SOURCES:
The Local: “Sweden Shows Off Garbo, Bergman Banknotes”
Sveriges Riksbank: “Questions and Answers – New Banknote and Coin Series”

QR codes – also known as Quick Response codes – play the role of an enhanced barcode. The pattern consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background. This unique pattern (different for all QR codes) is a gateway to information that is stored online and can be accessed using mobile phones.

The codes printed on the limited edition coins issued last year, for example, would direct people to a mobile website where they could find information on the Royal Dutch Mint and learn how the coins were made.

After a competition held to redesign their currency, Sweden will be the first to introduce the first banknotes with QR codes.

“The competition came to an end late last year with artist and engraver Goran Osterlund winning the privilege to fashion the codes for the new banknotes,” an article in QR Code Press reported. “Osterlund will design the new banknotes and determine the placement of two QR codes that will be featured on the currency. The codes are meant to direct people to the Svergis Riksbank website where they can find a wealth of information concerning the organization, its history, and the services it offers to Swedish citizens.”

Though the Swedish bank had hoped to introduce the banknotes by 2015, officials at Svergis Riksbank have said they have to first increase security on the codes after seeing examples of codes linking to malicious content. The bank also expressed concerns over the potential of accessing a users’ personal information when the code is scanned.

“As such,” QR Code Press said, “Svergis Riksbank is working to make their QR codes more secure.”

SOURCES:
QR Code Press: “Sweden To Adopt QR Coded Banknotes”
2D Code: “QR Code Banknotes”
“QR Code”

The bills feature new anti-counterfeiting devices such as transparent windows that are proving to be incompatible the existing ATMs. Rashid Al Fandi, executive director of banking operations and payment systems, expressed his frustration over the situation this week.

“When we launched the new, amended Dh500 (US$136.12) notes we informed all the banks to reprogram their machines,” he told The National. “It seems there was a delay in reprogramming the deposit-taking machines. This was what we asked the banks – so why the delay?”

Though consumers can still deposit the new banknotes to their accounts via bank tellers, the Central Bank said they had established timelines for companies to complete upgrades to the machines in order to avoid such a situation.

The Central Bank’s annoyance was compounded by the fact that other devices that took the Dh500 notes, such as counting machines, were reprogrammed within three days, wrote The National.

However, Sherif El Shafie, the regional managing director at NCR Corporation, a US maker of ATMs, barcode scanners and self-service kiosks and one of the biggest vendors of ATMs in the UAE, said the upgrades proved to be more complex than previously imagined.

“There is a sophisticated process for certifying any new banknote release to ensure that the technology identifies and recognizes genuine notes,” Shafie said. “This process takes some time to ensure accuracy.”

Shafie also said that the problem only resides in deposits and expects the issue to be fixed “within a matter of days.” Currently ATMs across the UAE are equipped to dispense the new Dh500 bills.

SOURCE:
The National: “New Banknotes Hard To Counterfeit And Deposit”

Available June 1, the £100 banknote is a special edition note that marks the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

In order to manufacture the note, a law dating back to 1959 that limited the maximum denomination of any currency note to £50 had to be amended.

“This is an appropriate way for Jersey to celebrate its loyalty to the crown,” said Senator Philip Ozouf, the Treasury Minister of the States of Jersey.

The note will feature English, French and Jèrriais words and the holographic portrait will appear as the main image and on the security strip.

In 2010, Jersey introduced a brand new series of banknotes that highlighted the region’s unique attributes.

Complete with images that chronicled key moments in the island’s history and phrases written in the native Jèrriais – a distinctive brand of French – the banknotes were the first new series Jersey has introduced in over twenty years.

Like many new banknotes, the Jersey series was also equipped with new security features to deter counterfeiting. A hologram on the top left corner of the notes was one of the new features added to the series as well as a see through map of the state. Familiar features such as a watermark and a silver security thread that appeared on old banknotes returned to the series as well.

The bailiwick of Jersey is part of the Channel Islands, located between England and France.

SOURCES:
BBC News: “Jersey Hologram £100 Banknotes Released.”
Banknote News: “Jersey Issues New Note Family”

The bill is the second in a series of new banknotes the Bank of Canada will introduce over the next two years. The first note, the $100 denomination, was released in November 2011.

The new Canadian banknotes feature security devices such as raised ink, a large transparent window that also contains a colour-shifting metallic portrait, hidden numbers in the transparent window that match the note’s denomination, transparent text, a frosted maple leaf window that also contains hidden numbers, among others.

The new banknotes are also newly designed.

This new $50 notes feature the Canadian Coast Guard ship “Amundsen” – a ship that “has been a major catalyst in the revitalization of Canadian Arctic science by providing Canadian researchers and their international collaborators with the platform and the tools to facilitate unprecedented access to the Arctic Ocean,” according to a website dedicated to the ship.

In line with this design, a ceremony to officially issue the new $50 banknote will be held at the Canadian Coast Guard’s Quebec port facility. The event will host speakers such as Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada, Shelly Glover, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, Marc Grégoire, Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, and Louis Fortier, Scientific Director of ArcticNet.

Though the Bank of Canada has not set precise release dates for the rest of the denominations in the new series – the $5, $10, and $20 notes – it did say in a press release this week that that information would be forthcoming.

“The $20 note will be unveiled and issued later this year, with the remaining denominations to be unveiled and issued by the end of 2013,” the release said. “Further details regarding timelines for the unveiling and issuance of these notes will be made available in the coming months.”

SOURCES:
MarketWatch: “Bank of Canada To Begin Circulating New $50 Polymer Banknote”
Bank of Canada: “Banknotes” , Bank of Canada Issues $50 Polymer Bank Note, Slick new $50 polymer bill ready to line wallets.

Zambia Daily Mail newspaper on January. 26, 2012 quoted businessman Lubuto Simwanza as saying, “Zambia has the highest denominations in the region. If you look to South Africa, they still have cents and many other countries still use coins.”

On January. 23, 2012 it took 5,120 kwacha to equal one U.S dollar. Zambia’s Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda announced that Zambia would “rebase” the kwacha currency by lopping off three zeros from each denomination that is now in circulation. With this said it shouldn’t be a surprise coins have not been circulating in Zambia.

“The rebasing had to be done when all the fundamentals like inflation and GDP [Gross Domestic Product] growth were right and we think they are now right” said Chikwanda.

Typically, coins vanish from circulation when rampant inflation decimates their purchasing power like in Zambia. Also, the metal content of the existing coins is greater than the face value of the metal, which leads to scrapping and hoarding. The Bank of Zambia, the nation’s central bank has recently announced it is searching for a company that will mint coins and print new banknotes once the currency is rebased in Zambia.

“The process has begun. We will in due course update members of the public because this is a multi-faceted project” quoted Kanguya Mayondi, head of public relations for the central bank.

The newly denominated banknotes to circulate simultaneously with the notes they will replace until the notes are recalled which is not yet determined said Mayondi. Circulating coins are to be added to the mix when currency reform is introduced.

“Mr. Mayondi said the process of currency rebasing involves a wider review of the currency family and enhancing security features, but this does not change the value of the currency and the purchasing power,” according to the Zambia Daily Mail article.

The article continues, “He [Mayondi] said the rebasing of the kwacha has been due to the need to address costs associated with an accumulated loss in the value of the currency, which undermines its basic function as a store of value, medium of exchange, and measure of value.”

Inflation was the primary problem acknowledged Mayondi. According to Mayondi, Inflation was at 7.2 percent in December 2011, which is the lowest rate in some time. With this said it appears to this may be a good time to revalue the current currency system.

Today the highest bank note in circulation is the 50,000 kwacha.

The currency “rebasement” now being planned would revalue this 50,000-kwacha note at 50 kwacha.

SOURCES:

NumisMaster: ‘Zambia Returns Coins to Circulation’

Zambia Daily Mail

Dr. Perks Ligoya, Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor said that the new banknote will be in circulation in the next six months at a news conference in Blantyre on Friday.

Ligoya said “We are introducing a complete new series of banknotes; in the process will have a new banknote of K1, 000”.

The new series of banknotes are “much smaller in size,” he said.

Ligoya said “The move is aimed at easing the pressure on inflation, the rise in the cost of basic goods and services”.

Ligoya said that “we have done this in order to reduce the cost of printing money as the sizes of the currencies have been significantly reduced. At the same time we have also increased some additional security and visually impaired-friendly features”.

The new K 1,000 banknote will be the largest one in value, economic commentators observed.

SOURCE:

Nyasa Times: ‘Malawi announces new K1, 000 bank notes’

The new series will cover the N$10, N$20, N$50, N$100 and N$200 banknotes, and will be equipped with heightened security features to prevent counterfeiting.

These new banknotes will also feature a change in design. The portrait of Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi on the N$10 and N$20 notes, for example, will be replaced with a portrait of Dr. Sam Nujoma.

“The change of the portrait on the N$10 and N$20 should therefore be viewed in the spirit of continuing to honour and recognize people who made personal sacrifices at different times of the long and bitter road to our freedom and independence. Dr Sam Nujoma is one of the living examples of such individuals amidst us,” Ndangi Katoma, the Bank of Namibia’s Director of Strategic Communication told New Era in an interview this week.

Though the new notes will be launched in March, they will not be circulated until May. There are two main reasons for this, according to Katoma.

“First, it is simply to allow commercial banks to ensure that they have adjusted and tested their systems. This will ensure that they finalize all logistical arrangements pertaining to handling of the new notes before issuance,” he said. “Secondly, this will allow the Bank of Namibia to conduct information campaigns and create the necessary awareness about the security features on the new banknotes before they are issued into the market.”

The old series will continue to be circulated after the new notes are introduced but will gradually be phased out over time. There is no steadfast timeline in place under which this process will take place.

SOURCES:
New Era: “Namibia’s New Banknotes To Come Soon”
All Africa: “Namimbia: New Banknotes With Nujoma, Witbooi Faces”