International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) has announced 2011 IACA currency awards winners at the IACA conference in Singapore recently. IACA is an international organization of central banks, currency-issuing authorities, currency producers and suppliers. Bank Negara Malaysia is one of the members of IACA and I hope Malaysia New Banknote next year will have a chance to be nominated in IACA currency awards. The Currency Awards program was designed to promote and recognize the excellence in the industry. Sponsored by Currency News and run by IACA, the awards are open to any organization or individual supplying products, systems or services and anyone can make a nomination for a category.
IACA currency awards winners for 2011:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Winners:
Alex Jarvis, Director, Global Currency for Authentix and former General Manager of the Bank of England Printing Works.
Jaime Pacreu, Ph.d Director General Mexico for Securency and former Director General, Currency Issue for the Banco de Mexico.
Best New Banknote or Banknote Series
Winner: The Bank of Uganda
Finalist: Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Best New Coin or Coin Series
Best New Currency Feature
Winner: Hologram Industries DID® Patch
details: 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°.
Finalist:
Arjowiggins Security Bioguard: a substrate specifically developed for its anti-bacterial properties.
Oberthur Technologies Securicoat: a first level security feature consisting of two UV printed varnishes, matt and glossy, with intaglio embossing.
Best New Currency Innovation, Process or Product Award
Winner: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority's
Details: 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.
Finalist: Giesecke & Devrient, OeBS & Jura.
Best Currency Public Education Program
Winner: The Bank of Canada
Details: 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.
Finalist: Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Best Currency Website
Winner: The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic
Details: www.bancentral.gov.do/english/coins_and_banknotes.asp
Finalist:
National Bank of Romania, www.bnro.ro/Coins-and-notes-in-circulation-1331.asp.
Bank of Botswana,www.bankofbotswana.bw/content/2010031616039-current-notes-and-coin.
Source: http://www.currencyaffairs.org
Bank of Uganda also won IBNS-Banknote of 2010 with their Uganda 50000 shilling.
