Glossary

The storage, transmission, manipulation and reproduction of data, images, sounds, etc., by a process that uses groups of electronic bits represented as 1 or 0.

Any printing technology capable of producing printed materials directly from a computer file. Digital printing does not require an intermediary medium such as film, nor an intermediary machine such as a platemaker. Non-impact printing such as laser, inkjet and dye sublimation all fall into this category.

Can be in the form of an app, card or universal access device. It refers to a place where electronic money is held in token form.

Organic molecular particles based on DNA carbon compounds, either naturally occurring or synthetic. Typically used to tag documents or products for subsequent testing to prove authenticity.

The process by which the US dollar is de facto adopted as the currency of a country. Dollarisation can be unofficial (the public chooses to hold dollars), or official (the central bank and government do not produce their own banknotes, eg. Ecuador).

An impact printer that uses a fixed number of pins or wires, typically arranged in one or several vertical columns. The pins strike an ink-coated ribbon and force contact between the ribbon and the paper, so that each pin makes a small dot on the paper. The combination of these dots forms a dot matrix image allowing for various types of characters and digits to be reproduced. While inkjet and laser printers technically exhibit dot matrix printing, they are not considered to be ‘dot matrix printers’. Dot matrix printers are often used for counterfeiting the serial numbers on banknotes.

Used to measure the resolution of an image both on screen and in print. DPI measures how many dots fit into a linear inch, therefore the higher the DPI, the more detail can be shown in an image.

An ink or substance which absorbs incident light at a specific wavelength and emits it at a lower energy (longer wavelength). Usually these substrates absorb ultraviolet light and emit visible light. See also Upconversion.

A digital printing technology used on production lines often to print variable data such as lot numbers and expiry dates. In contrast to continuous inkjet, DOD printers only create ink drops as needed to form the image. They tend to be faster than continuous inkjet printers.

A banknote that is not legal tender and printed during the testing of a new family of banknotes. It is subject to special security measures even though it is designed not to be confused with a legitimate banknote. A dummy banknote can also be produced for special training purposes eg. for blind and partially sighted people.

A sculpted image of a person, usually a monarch, that appears on the obverse of a coin or banknote.

The complete group of waves that range in frequency from radio waves to gamma rays, but all travel at the speed of light.

The technique of scanning a focused beam of electrons to draw custom shapes on a surface covered with an electron-sensitive film called a resist. The whole origination process is undertaken in a vacuum chamber where the e-beam writes onto the resist plate. This is sometimes referred to as a direct write process. It is used to create holographic images.

A process for producing a metal coating of copper, nickel or bronze on a core steel or alloy substrate through the reduction of cations (positively charged ions) of that metal by means of a direct electric current. Electroplating is an alternative method of producing less expensive coin blanks while maintaining the visual and technical characteristics of a solid alloy-based coin. Circulating coins in traditional alloys do not undergo the electroplating process.

Security features embedded in the paper during the production process or inserted between laminated layers. These include threads, planchettes, microtaggants, microcapsules and other devices, which cannot be removed or added retroactively without destroying the paper.

The transfer of a raised pattern from a hard plate to a softer material. This mechanical transfer (which can be made through a seal, stamp or die) is usually facilitated by means of heat and always with pressure.

Repeated, sometimes unspaced lines of text in the background or security thread of a secure document.

A framework used to assess an organisation’s business practices and performance on various sustainability and ethical issues.

The process by which the euro is de facto adopted as the currency of a country.

A unit of account used by the European Economic Community composed of a basket of member country currencies. The value of the ECU was calculated as a weighted average of the value of the currencies comprising the basket. On 1 January 1999, the euro replaced the ECU at parity.

A body created within the European Union to support EU member states in the fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organised forms of crime, like currency counterfeiting.

Central banks exchange legal tender banknotes that are mutilated or damaged, when a certain percentage (usually more than 50% of the banknote) is presented or, when 50% or less is presented, and the remainder is shown to be destroyed.

Part of the qualification process to receive a tender document. The buyer (eg. a government organisation) is requesting a provider to express an interest in providing goods and services for a project.

A black rectangle printed on the edge of labels and other printed materials, which is read by a machine to locate where one label starts and the next ends. 

The figure or amount written on a banknote or coin indicating the amount of its economic value. Usually written in letters and numbers.

Banknotes form a family when a series of banknotes are designed and issued as part of a coherent set of notes. They maintain traits that identify them as members of the same group (unity of design, uniformity of structure, etc.), while they may be of different size.

A currency established as money, often by government regulation, without an intrinsic value, unlike a precious metal or a piece of merchandise. A development step from the use of commodity money, whose value comes from the commodity from which it is made (such as gold, silk, cigarettes).

Expression used by economists and monetary specialists to refer to the amount of money in circulation.

A process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services. While it is recognised that not all individuals need or want financial services, the goal of financial inclusion is to remove all barriers, both on the supply side and demand side. Supply side barriers stem from financial institutions themselves. They often indicate poor financial infrastructure, and include lack of nearby financial institutions, high costs to opening accounts, or documentation requirements. Demand side barriers refer to aspects of the individual seeking financial services and include lack of proof of identity, financial illiteracy, lack of financial capability, or cultural or religious beliefs that impact their financial decisions.There is growing scepticism from some experts about the effectiveness of financial inclusion as an economic and social development tool.

An umbrella term describing technology-enabled innovation in financial services, regardless of the nature or size of the entity providing the services, which could result in new business models, applications, processes and products.

State treasury.

A used banknote, which has not suffered any cuts, scrapes, tears, punctures, or marks and which presents a degree of soiling or wear considered acceptable by the central bank to be returned into circulation.

A rotary relief printing method whereby a mirrored 3D relief of the required image is created in a rubber or polymer material. A measured amount of ink is deposited upon the surface of the printing plate, which then rotates, making contact with the substrate and transferring the ink.

An optically variable element visually perceived as an image hovering or floating in space above or below a document’s surface.

A type of luminescence, describing the ability of some molecules or materials to absorb ultraviolet (UV) energy and immediately re-emit this energy within the visible spectrum, as a glowing light. The emitted light disappears as soon as the excitation light is extinguished. There is no persistence of emitted light as in the case of phosphorescence.

UV-activated fibres that are randomly distributed across the surface and through the volume of security paper during the papermaking process.

Small coloured or colourless particles of a different size randomly embedded in paper pulp during the manufacturing process. The particles glow when exposed to UV light.

UV-activated ink that ceases to glow immediately after the illuminating light source has been turned off.

Small, coloured discs with fluorescent properties usually mixed into the paper pulp during the papermaking process.

A material comprising a polyester carrier with one or more coatings, a release layer and an adhesive layer. The foil is transferred – generally by heat – onto paper, and the carrier is stripped away, leaving the coating bonded to the substrate by the adhesive. This coating can be plain or imaged, monochrome or coloured, colour-shifting, iridescent, metallised, holographic, etc. Also known as hot stamping or transfer foil. Foils are generally applied to banknotes as a continuous stripe (typically measuring 6-10mm wide) or a patch (typically square, circular or elliptical).

Security feature reserved for special departments or officials. Special tools or laboratories are required to reveal their presence and characteristics. The presence and nature of these features are generally kept a closely guarded secret and they are typically used after an enforcement raid to provide definitive proof of the authenticity of a product or document. Such proof can be used, if necessary, as evidence in a court of law.

Also known as process colour printing – a conventional printing method based on four colours: the so-called CMYK colours of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Together, these colours can reproduce on paper almost 70% of the colours visible to the human eye.

A papermaking machine consisting of a moving endless belt of wire or plastic screen that receives a mixture of pulp and water and allows excess water to drain off, forming a continuous. Fourdrinier was first machine to produce a continuous web (roll). It is more suited than cylinder mould for producing lightweight paper for documents such as tax stamps. See also Dandy roll.

A type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for use in lighthouses. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a conventional optical lens. Instead of the curved surface of a conventional lens the Fresnel lens consists of a series of concentric grooves that act as individual refracting surfaces, bending parallel light rays to a common focal length.

An effect in which parts of a coin are slightly dulled (using sandblasting techniques) to provide a contrast to the shinier parts of the metal.

Solvent- or water-based ink printed onto a security document. When solvent or ink eradicators are applied to the document the fugitive ink spreads out creating a smudge, which denotes the attempt to tamper with the print.

An item is fungible if one unit of the item is equivalent to another unit of the same item of the same quality at the same time, place, etc. Fungibility allows an item or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Fungible assets simplify exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between assets.

The recipe used to manufacture paper that comprises various pulps, dyes, additives and other chemicals blended together in the stock preparation area of the paper mill and fed to the wet end of paper machines to make paper or paperboard.

A subset of artificial intelligence that focuses on creating new content, such as text, images, audio, or video, by learning patterns from existing data. Common examples include language models like GPT (which powers ChatGPT) or image generation models like DALL-E. Unlike agentic AI, generative AI operates under user prompts and can’t perform tasks on its own initiative.

An artificial watermark printed on the back of a sheet that will not appear on a scanned or copied document.