PRODUCING WORLD CURRENCY &
INTERNATIONAL BANKNOTES


Colombian Culture and Biodiversity

During 2016, the Central Bank of Colombia, Banco de la República, began issuing a completely new series of banknotes. A total of six different denominations will be available to the public and all of them have new security features and a design that reflects the culture and biodiversity of Colombia.

Yadira Ivette, the Deputy Director of the printing works department at Banco de la República, has been responsible for the project and she also led the technical team that defined the parameters ofthe tender that resulted in the decision to partner with Crane Currency and its design services experts.“According to our experience, the Crane Currency design services team is reliable, fast, flexible and costumer oriented,” says Yadira Ivette.

Selecting a partner with experience and technical skills

The development of a new banknote series was initiated in late 2013 when Banco de la República formed an interdisciplinary group. The groupanalyzed new developments in banknote design, the latest security elements available in theindustry and the most recent counterfeiting techniques. With that information, Banco de la República defined the parameters for the project and opened a tender to select the security designer. One of the participants was Crane Currency and its team of design services experts. After a thorough evaluation of the suppliers’ experience and technical capacity, Crane Currency won the tender in September 2014 having achieved the highest overall score.“Crane Currency was selected because of its excellent technical proposal and its competitive costs,” says Yadira Ivette.

Complex design for efficient printing

The concept put forth by Crane Currency was attractive to Banco de la República for many reasons. Crane Currency has its own print works and the single-note proofing is managed internally at its facilities in Tumba, Sweden. According to Yadira Ivette, the goal was to design banknotes that were complex and difficult to counterfeit but at the same time that were efficiently produced in Banco de la República’s facilities. “Crane Currency had a complete understanding of our needs and helped us to fulfill that goal,” she says.

Expressing culture and spirit

When preparing for the new banknotes, security elements that were strong, durable and easy to communicate to the public were the keyrequirements. The new design should also reflect the culture and biodiversity of the country. To accomplish all that, Banco de la República started with the initial sketches and design concepts. These ideas then had to be carefully complemented with security design elements – a challenging process.“Crane Currency’s design team was able to find a technical solution for our complex requirements in terms of security, printability and functionality. They have also been able to read our culture, our biodiversity and our spirit in order to design individual banknotes that belong to a single series,” says Yadira Ivette.

Future plans in Colombia

As the new series is launched, Banco de la República will emphasize the communication process in order to educate the public.