The 2015 Currency Conference, Vancouver, BC, May 10-13

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

Hello fellow collectors,



Leonhard Zurz Stiftung & Company booth:  This firm provides the hologram film on our Canadian Polymer Frontier Notes.

I wonder what they would say if they were to be asked about the many notes discovered in bricks with no hologram images.

I will take individual photos of the various proto-type, test polymer substrate, polymer/paper notes when I have time.

Many of the notes are beautiful, with state-of-the art polymer technology.   You will see some very rare test notes that are seldom seen anywhere. 

I was also fortunate to be introduced to a few top-level central bank delegates.   Many of whom provided their business cards and autographs.   I will share those later.

@rupiah:  They are very selective who attends.  You have to be pre-qualified.   The registration cost is $2,500 (and that does NOT include hotel and/or airfare):   http://www.currencyconference.com/registeration-information

As for the hologram notes missed during production of Canada's polymer notes, Kurz is just a supplier of the technology and receives a royalty.   The Canadian Bank Note Company is responsible for adhering to the quality control.

It was interesting to see some delegates not very satisfied about Canada's polymer notes at the Starbucks store at the Westin Hotel.  They were talking amongst themselves, feeling and looking at the circulated polymer notes.

@rupiah:  They are very selective who attends.  You have to be pre-qualified.   The registration cost is $2,500 (and that does NOT include hotel and/or airfare):   http://www.currencyconference.com/registeration-information

As for the hologram notes missed during production of Canada's polymer notes, Kurz is just a supplier of the technology and receives a royalty.   The Canadian Bank Note Company is responsible for adhering to the quality control.

Thx. - I know - I tried to register but they would not let me. My push for making sure that BoC is more inclusive of engaging people in design continues behind the scenes.

Re: The hologram - It is a substarte issue and I would doubt that it would be up to CBNC. The hologram along with the Maple Leafs around the full height window, the opacifying layers and the small maple leaf window are all in the substrate as they come to CBNC.

So whoever manufactures the hologram is more than likely to be responsible for missing holograms on bank notes.

Here are some of the materials that were provided to me after speaking to various manufacturer's sales representatives.

Lovely - Thx

@rupiah,

I found out the process that the Bank of Canada uses when manufacturing a polymer note, from the BoC presentation at the conference.  They have implemented a process called the Single Note Inspection Process.

When I spoke with a Kurz represntative, the hologram foil on the Canadian polymer note is their technology.   When I spoke with an Innovia (Guardian) representative, they said they incorporate the Kurz hologram foil into their Guardian polymer note substrate.   A lot of the companies surprising co-operate each other and incorporate other technologies into their product. 

When the polymer note substrate along with the hologram foil is incorporated, the CBN prints the remainder of the polymer note.  It is surprising and interesting to note that BA International is the party that cuts the sheets of notes, and inspects the note for defects, etc. 

That's interesting that CBN does the printing and BAI the cutting and inspecting.

Information about who's printing what really has changed over time. This doc from 2011 says that both BAI and CBN will be printing the notes. A few months later BAI announced that that it will stop printing but will endeavor to continue so supply "banknote-related services" (that sounds like the cutting and inspecting that coinsplus was talking about) to the BoC.

The big question is... what does this mean for the printer identifier letter at the beginning of the serial number? If CBN's printing everything and BAI is cutting/inspecting, does the first letter of the prefix have anything to do with the printer anymore at all?

The Oberthur test note is cataloged as FRAN-161a in The Catalog of Printers' Test Notes - 10th Edition.

I found an unattributed printer's test note from Toppan today.  It looked familiar, then I remembered seeing the booth shot from the Vancouver Currency Conference with the "horse" house note on full display at the Toppan booth.  Thought I would show it off here.  Hope you got samples while you were there!  This note has showed up commercially only twice - sold for $400.  Catalog number TP-101 in the upcoming Catalog of Printers' Test Notes - 11th Edition.

Here are some of the polymer test notes.  More to follow: