Banknotes Break New Ground with Holograms

In last month’s issue of Holography News™, we covered Japan’s new banknote series, all three notes in which feature holographic portraits.

This month, our attention turns to Morocco, which has just issued a new 50 dirham banknote, the third in its new series. The new banknote, which highlights Morocco’s sustainable development through the national strategy for clean energy and the protection of natural resources, is understood to be the first note to feature a TRILUMIC® thread from Hueck Folien.

The new banknote incorporates a series of advanced security features, including the TRIMULIC windowed thread with a dynamic blue-to-green d colour shift, a metallised five-pointed star, DH (dirham), and 50.

TRIMULIC, developed in conjunction with the Banque de France, was launched in 2019 for stripes. In 2021, the product range was extended to threads. It combines Hueck Folien’s ColorSwitch™ technology with proprietary hidden halftone images that create brilliant RBG true-colour images when exposed to UV light.

Examples of these UV based products in stripe format can be found in the Cambodia 15,000 and 20,000 riel commemorative banknotes and, now, as a thread on a circulating banknote as well.

The new note was designed and produced by Morocco’s printworks, Dar As-Sikkah.

Another example of a newly-issued banknote note featuring a hologram is the commemorative $50 issued by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) in honour of Grenada’s 50th anniversary of independence. Grenada is one of one eight island countries that form the ECCB monetary union.

This new banknote, designed on De La Rue’s SAFEGUARD® polymer substrate, is the latest addition to the all-polymer series that began in 2019, and follows on from the multiple award-winning ECCB $2 note issued last December to celebrate the ECCB’s 40th anniversary.

The new note’s features, among other, include SPOTLIGHT™ and PUREIMAGE™. SPOTLIGHT is present in the holographic foil as a counter-rotating ‘5’ and ‘0’, while PUREIMAGE appears twice in the holographic design, on either side of the main window which features Grenada’s coat of arms.