Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming December 2015 22 A particularly memorable seminar session – featuring Marc Mittelstaedt, G&D’s head of banknote design – provided a layer-by- layer exposition of the creation of a new banknote. As G&D points out in its promotional literature, banknotes are an expression of the identity of a nation, serving in a way as calling cards. The creation of banknotes is therefore a complex art, melding aesthetics and the latest advances in security technology. To illustrate the various steps in the process, Mr Mittelstaedt’s team designed and produced a colorful sample banknote — after the Bauhaus-style, the influential art school that played an important role in Western architecture in the 20th century — incorporating all the latest security features. The base layer consists of the banknote substrate. Banknote substrates incorporate several embedded components such as watermarks, which have been an important security feature for over 100 years, as well as security threads. Adjusting for differing climactic and circulation conditions across countries, G&D treats substrates with special coatings before and after printing to maximize the durability of banknotes within their given environment, while ensuring the security features are not compromised in the process. The next step involves printing of the background using a simultaneous offset method that makes possible security features such as see-through registers and intricate, multi-colored designs. Tech Talk Additional invisible but multicolor luminescent motifs, which appear under UV light, may also be included. Then comes a layer of intaglio printing, a technique whereby an image is engraved into a metallic printing plate, and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. This gives banknotes their unique strong colors and contrasts, the tactile texture and high-quality appearance. The final stages involve screen printing and numbering. Screen printing is used to apply layers of newly developed functional pigments that can produce striking dynamic effects. Furthermore, the thickness of the coating involved in screen printing produces a substantial optical brilliance along with a high level of resistance to wear and tear during circulation. The all-important sequential serial numbers are added using letterpress printing. There are various options when it comes to serial numbers. They can be encrypted or designed to be additionally machine-readable, using magnetic pigment, for example. In addition to traditional numbering, G&D has also introduced the laser as a printing tool, making it possible to integrate the serial number into the banknote in whole or in part, possibly as a color motif within the area of the watermark, or a hologram — providing yet another line of defense against would-be counterfeiters. In the last step of the cash cycle, banknote processing systems, equipped with high-tech features such as very sensitive sensors, immediately detect and reject all counterfeits or banknotes with defects. “The Louisenthal facility is nestled in the Bavarian countryside an hour’s drive south of Munich”