Design and Innovation in Banknotes and ID Recognised at HSP Asia 2025
The Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing (HSP) Asia conference. This year’s event was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the awards presented at a special ceremony during the conference dinner on 2 December.
Awards were made in the three traditional categories for the Banknote awards – Best New Banknote, Best New Series, and Best New Commemorative Banknote – with Japan, Bhutan, Thailand, and Tajikistan all receiving recognition. A fourth category, Best House Note, was introduced earlier this year at the HSP EMEA conference, with KOMSCO and Perum Peruri both awarded in this category at HSP Asia.
This year’s ID Document Awards, meanwhile, recognised two outstanding projects for Best New Passport and Best New ID Document – with Japan and Malaysia awarded in each respective category.
BANKNOTE AWARDS
Best New Series
The Bank of Japan and Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan jointly received awards in the Best New Series category.
The Bank of Japan received the award for its new yen banknote series. Issuance of the new series – including 10,000, 5,000, and 1,000 yen notes – began in July 2024, marking the first time in 20 years that a new series of banknotes had been introduced.
The front of the notes feature portraits of historical figures who shaped modern Japan and the back aspects of Japan’s culture and nature.
The notes also feature upgraded security features, including 3-D holograms that rotate when tilted, and high-definition watermark patterns embedded in the background of the portrait watermarks.
The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan (RMA) received the award for its new ngultrum banknote series. It recently unveiled the designs for the first three notes in its new note family – the 100, 500, and 1,000 ngultrum. Designed and printed by De La Rue on SAFEGUARD® polymer, the series represents a significant upgrade in durability, sustainability, and public authentication. Both the RMA and De La Rue have commented that the banknotes embody Bhutan’s commitment to innovation, inclusivity, and the enduring values of its monarchy.
The banknotes feature a robust set of optical elements, including ARGENTUM™, ROTATE™, enhanced GEMINI™, tactile emboss, and a sophisticated holographic stripe with DEPTH™ and SPOTLIGHT® effects on the two higher denominations, depicting a dynamic dragon grasping jewels.
Best New Banknotes
The award for Best New Banknotes was presented to the Bank of Thailand for its new 50 and 100 bahts, which entered circulation in November. The notes have been printed on polymer substrate and their release follows that of the updated 20 baht note, which was first issued in 2022. Studies by the Bank have shown that the new polymer banknote is four times more durable than its paper counterpart. This is projected to save 350 million banknotes per year over the eight years that the notes are expected to last, reducing production, transport and resource costs.
The new notes retain the familiar designs of the current paper versions while incorporating advanced security features. The substrate for the 50 baht is De La Rue’s SAFEGUARD™, featuring colour changing, iridescent, and hide and reveal security features. The substrate for the 100 baht is CCL Secure’s GUARDIAN™. It incorporates a complex window, a GSWITCH™ dynamic colour-shifting feature that makes a flower on the note change from purple to orange when tilted, and a secondary window contains a METALIX™ pentagon with a brilliant metallic sheen and a lustrous gold finish.
Both notes also include embossed and transparent diagonal lines, which can be easily touched and felt, to support individuals with visual impairments.
Best New Commemorative Banknote
The National Bank of Tajikistan was awarded Best New Commemorative Banknote for its new 100 somoni banknote, issued to mark the 25th anniversary of the national currency. This is also the first commemorative banknote introduced since the creation of the somoni.
The note circulates alongside the existing 100 somoni denomination and is also the first to feature Louisenthal’s new RollingStar® Venus thread with both Color MotifFlip™ and ColorFlip on the reverse, and RollingStar® Patch on the front.
The RollingStar® Venus is a registered 6mm security thread in orange + violet. The middle of the three windows utilises Color MotifFlip with striking change of colour and motif, with the orange denomination numeral (100) disappearing into the violet background, while a second motif ‘БМТ’ (‘Бонки Mиллии Тоҷикистон’, which means National Bank of Tajikistan) appears out of the violet background in orange in the same area.
In the upper and lower windows is the eyecatching ColorFlip™ with ornaments typical of Islamic culture showing dynamic effects and flipping colour (orange and violet. A RollingStar® Patch features demetallisation and a ColorShift effect from violet-to-green. The background has a dynamic pattern and, in the centre, is a clear flip effect from the denomination numeral to the letters ‘БМТ’.
Best New House Notes
The Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corporation (KOMSCO) and Perum Peruri jointly received awards in the Best New House Note category.
KOMSCO received the award for its ‘80th Anniversary of Liberation’ house note, developed to showcase its advanced security printing capabilities and commemorate a historic milestone for the Republic of Korea.
The house note prominently features iconic national symbols. It also integrates a barrier-free design, with tactile elements and a digital voice-guidance code.
13 high-level security elements are incorporated, integrating KOMSCO’s proprietary technologies with those from its selected partners. Its multi-colour fluorescent ink Fluotune®, the latent image Hiddenface®, and the voice-guided Divo-Code sit alongside Louisenthal’s RollingStar® i+ security thread as well as SICPA’s SPARK Flow® and NEOMAG®(Hard Magnetic Variant) ink. The use of NEOMAG®(Hard Magnetic Variant) ink marks the first application of a light-coloured magnetic machine-readable ink, enabling bright designs.
Perum Peruri received the award for its ‘Housenote 4.0’, developed with the core message of sustainability and environmental awareness, blending secure printing with a vision of a greener, more harmonious future. The house note features elements developed in collaboration with SICPA, including SPARK® Stream, an optically variable ink that delivers dynamic colour-shifting effects.
Produced on a hybrid paper substrate, the design of Housenote 4.0 aims to embody the theme of sustainability, where the reverse side illustrates the pressing realities of metropolitan life – dense urban landscape, congestion, and limited green spaces – reflecting the environmental and social challenges faced by modern cities. In contrast, the obverse side symbolises renewal and balance through scenes of greenery and clean air, conveying hope for a more sustainable and liveable future.
Together, both designs portray Jakarta, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Southeast Asia, as one transitioning towards a calmer, more organised, and nature-connected metropolis.
ID DOCUMENT AWARDS
Best New Passport
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), in partnership with the National Printing Bureau (NPB), received the Best New Passport award for the new 2025 Passport series.
Production of the 2025 Passport began in March 2025, marking Japan’s transition from a paper-based to a polycarbonate photo page. The new passport adopts a multi-layer polycarbonate data page on which the holder’s photograph and biographical data are laser engraved. Personalisation, previously carried out at prefectural passport offices, has been centralised to two NPB facilities, improving process control and security[i].
The 2025 Passport retains and extends the design approach introduced in 2020, with each visa page featuring a different print from Katsushika Hokusai’s ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji’. The sequence of images is carefully ordered, with motifs symbolising departure and return, and the variety of artwork also contributing to anti-counterfeiting by making page substitution or replication more difficult.
On the reverse of the datapage, an embossed cherry blossom motif produces a three-dimensional movement effect when tilted, integrated into a layout that presents the spread as a single framed illustration with Mount Fuji as a central design element.
These visible features, together with a range of other security elements and a tightly controlled manufacturing process at NPB, ensure compliance with ICAO specifications for ePassports and provide a robust defence against fraud.
At system level, MOFA has complemented the document redesign with a fully online application channel via the national MynaPortal platform, available nationwide for both first-time applications and renewals. By linking to family register data, the service removes the need for applicants to obtain paper extracts, streamlining the issuance process while maintaining a high level of assurance in identity proofing.
The award acknowledges MOFA as the issuing authority and the National Printing Bureau as design and production partner for a next-generation passport that combines enhanced security with improved convenience for Japanese travellers.
Best New ID Document
The Best New ID Document award went to the Immigration Department of Malaysia for the latest generation of the Malaysia Pass (MAL Pass) label. The Malaysia Pass is used by the Immigration Department to document permission for foreign nationals to enter and reside in Malaysia under a range of categories, including short-term professional and long-term social visit passes.
Percetakan Keselamatan Nasional Sdn Bhd (PKN) has produced Malaysia Pass labels since 2011, with a series of incremental upgrades over more than a decade to maintain the security and integrity of the document.
In the 2024 upgrade, PKN and the Immigration Department introduced a new KINEGRAM ZERO.ZERO® patch from Kurz / OVD Kinegram (OVDK) as the primary optical security device on the label. This unique metallisation approach enables fine-line kinetic motifs that are easy for inspectors to recognise but extremely difficult to copy using conventional holographic foil processes.
On the MAL Pass label, the new patch combines metallised and transparent elements to deliver strong optically variable and kinetic effects across the surface of the device, supporting rapid visual authentication and enhancing resistance to tampering, label lifting and reuse.
The design is compatible with machine-assisted examination, supporting integration into automated or semi-automated border control and immigration workflows. By upgrading the optical security layer while maintaining compatibility with existing issuance processes, the project demonstrates how a widely used immigration label can be significantly strengthened without disrupting front-line operations.
Taken together, the 2025 Japanese Passport and Malaysia’s upgraded Malaysia Pass label show how issuers in Asia are using polycarbonate substrates, centralised personalisation, online service delivery and advanced DOVID technology to improve travel and immigration documents.