First Excellence in Currency Awards Presented at 2007 Currency Conference in Bangkok

[akdrv]

Bangkok, Thailand (PRWEB) May 10, 2007 -- The seven individuals and companies being honoured with Awards for Excellence in Currency were announced on Tuesday at the annual Currency Conference in Bangkok. Although the Currency Conference has been running for some years, this is the first time excellence in currency has been honoured with awards, and the event itself did not disappoint.

 

The Excellence in Currency Awards were presented by IACA chairman Rick Haycock at the close of yesterday's general conference session, who commented on the extremely high calibre of all the entries, particularly considering that this was the inaugural event for these awards. He extended thanks to all those who sent in nominations, to the award sponsors Currency News and the IACA Awards Committee for researching all the entries and short listing the finalists.

 

The Lifetime Achievement Award was won by Thomas Ferguson, who recently retired as Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. As Director, Tom was responsible for the two BEP printing facilities that produced an average 9 billion bank notes per year.

 

Tom has appeared on numerous broadcasts and in many printed interviews extolling the use of currency and the need to understand the layers of security provided to protect the public from counterfeit money.

 

The National Bank of Kazakhstan was the winner of the Best New Bank note Award. The complex and highly secure new series, launched in November 2006 includes the first use of bank note printer De La Rue's Optiks® feature on the top denomination 10,000 Tenge to help prevent counterfeit money. Runners up were the Central Bank of Sweden, for the new 1,000 Kronor launched in March 2006, and the Bank of Mexico, for the new 50 Peso bank note which was issued in November 2006 as a polymer note incorporating the new G-switch™ feature.

 

The Best New Coin Award went to the Royal Canadian Mint for the result of its collaboration with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. This Canadian quarter (25 cents) has the image of a pink ribbon in its centre. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand, for its lighter and smaller plated steel 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces and the British Royal Mint for the UK Brunel £2 coin were the runners up in this category.

 

Crane's Motion™ won the hotly contested award for the Best New Currency Feature. This optically variable feature incorporating a micro-lens array for security threads first appeared on the Swedish 1,000 Kronor bank note and has recently been chosen as the primary overt feature for the new US$100. G-switch™ (from Securency) and Varifeye® (from Louisenthal) were worthy competitors who both received runner up awards. All the competitors for this award have made great strides in raising the bar to counterfeit money.

 

KBA GIORI won the Best New Currency Product, Process or System Award for ONE™ -- a complete suite of products from bank note digital design through to direct intaglio and offset plate making. Runners up were Direct Laser Engraver (DLE) (from JURA and OeBS) and OBIS 3 (from Giesecke & Devrient).

 

The award for Best Currency Public Education Program was won by the BEP for its $10 campaign. This 'Color of Money' education program for the new generation of US bank notes was carried out in 24 different languages. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand also received many votes for the public education campaign for its new coins, and that earned the Bank a runner up award along with Eureka Metro for the 2nd edition of the World Polymer Notes book.

 

Last but not least the award for the Best Currency Website went to The Bank of England for its newly-designed website www.bankofengland.co.uk incorporating what the judges thought were very effective video presentations and virtual tours to illustrate their bank note security features. In another hotly contested category, the excellent efforts of the Bank of Russia - www.cbr.ru/eng and the BEP - www.bep.treas.gov/newmoney - won those institutions the runner up slots.

 

Nominations for the 2008 IACA Awards will commence next month via the website http://www.currencyaffairs.org .

[De Orc]

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