THE 2011 CURRENCY AWARD WINNERS

Alex Jarvis (l) and Jaime Pacreu, Ph.d (r)

The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to two distinguished individuals, (1) Alex Jarvis, Director, Global Currency for Authentix and former General Manager of the Bank of England Printing Works and (2) Jaime Pacreu, Ph.dDirector General Mexico for Securency and former Director General, Currency Issue for the Banco de Mexico.

All their years of dedicated service in this industry made them natural nominees for this category and the IACA Board of Directors welcomes them to this illustrious group.

(left to right) Louis Kasekende, Armando Suratos and Juan De Zuniga

The Bank of Uganda was the winner of theBest New Banknote Series Award. On 17 May 2010, Uganda began circulating a new family of banknotes, the first major design change in over 20 years. The notes are uniquely Ugandan, celebrating the countries natural, historical and cultural heritage. Two themes run through the notes series: “Gifted by Nature” and “Uganda through the Times” Finalists in this category from a record number of entries were the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), both issuing new series of extremely high standards.

Seen here collecting their awards are Louis Kasekende for the Bank of Uganda, and on behalf of the BSP, Armando Suratos and Juan De Zuniga. Unfortunately there was no representative from Sri Lanka at the event so the award will be delivered to them in due course.

(left to right) Olivier Guize, Christophe Montet and Hugues Souparis

Hologram Industries DID® Patch won the award for the Best New Currency Feature. This innovative OVD is now in use on the new BSP 500 and 1000 banknotes. Two distinctive colors appear at the direct reflection angle. The Unique DID® features consist in the permutation of the colors when the device is rotated 90°.

Arjowiggins Security Bioguard® a substrate specifically developed for its anti-bacterial properties and Oberthur Technologies Securicoat®; a first level security feature consisting of two UV printed varnishes, matt and glossy, with intaglio embossing were the very worthy competitors who both received finalist awards. Left to right accepting the awards were Olivier Guize (Arjowiggins Security), Christophe Montet, (Oberthur Fiduciaire) andHugues Souparis (Hologram Industries.)

(left to right) Johannes Miller, Ferenc Koltai, Elisabeth Limbacher and Lydia Yip

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Process to Co-ordinate the Issue of Hong Kong’s New Series, by three different note-issuing banks won the Best New Currency Innovation, Process or Product Award. Three different banknote designers were working independently without access to each other’s work, under the close guidance and coordination from HKMA. All 3 new issues have completely different designs but have common security features through all denominations.

The innovative approach was to ensure the successful collaboration between various stakeholders, such as the 3 Issuing Banks, the 3 designers, the HK Police Force, HK Note Printing Limited, the Blind and Visually Impaired Community, the suppliers of the Security Features, and the suppliers of the equipment and machines used within the cash cycle. Finalists for this award were BPS C4 Autoload-Option from Giesecke & Devrient and GS Inspector & GS Plate QC, from OeBS & Jura.

Seen at left with their awards are Johannes Miller (OEBS), Ferenc Koltai (Jura), Elisabeth Limbacher (G&D) and Lydia Yip (HKMA).

(left to right) Foo-Yap Siew Hong, Gerry Gaetz and Lydia Yip

The Bank of Canada was the winner of the award for Best Currency Public Education Program where they used a very effective video to introduce the upcoming polymer note series. The video showcasing the $100 has helped prepare Canadians for a very different sort of banknote and one that promises to be easy to verify and hard to counterfeit.

Worthy finalists for this award were the Monetary Authority of Singapore and theHong Kong Monetary Authority. Seen at right accepting their awards are Foo-Yap Siew Hong (Singapore), Gerry Gaetz (Canada) and Lydia Yip (Hong Kong).

Last but not least the award for the Best Currency Website went to The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic whose website was very well laid out. Links covering the history of this country’s currency, the banknotes currently in circulation and the security features used are easy to follow. See WWW.BANCENTRAL.GOV.DO/ENGLISH/COINS_AND_BANKNOTES.ASP.

The two notable finalists were the National Bank of Romania, for further information; WWW.BNRO.RO/COINS-AND-NOTES-IN-CIRCULATION-1331.ASP and the Bank of Botswana atWWW.BANKOFBOTSWANA.BW/CONTENT/2010031616039-CURRENT-NOTES-AND-COIN.

Unfortunately there was no representative present at the Currency conference from any of these winners to receive their awards. IACA will ensure they receive them.

IACA would like to thank our members for the high voting return and their continued support. IACA will conduct the next round of nominations and awards during 2013, with announcement of the awards planned for the Currency Conference in Athens, Greece.