The Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing (HSP) Latin America conference. This year’s event was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the awards presented at a special ceremony during the conference dinner on 10 June on top of the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain.
Awards were made in the three traditional categories for this year’s Banknote awards – Best New Banknote, Best New Series and Best New Commemorative Banknote – with Curaçao and Sint Maarten, Bermuda and Guatemala all receiving recognition. In addition, a fourth category has been introduced for the first time – Best New House Note, with Casa da Moeda do Brasil and its two partners, BlendPaper and Hueck Folien taking the honours.
There were three categories for the ID awards – Best New Passport, Best New National ID Card, and Best New National ID System. St Kitts and Nevis, Peru and Guyana were the winners in each category respectively.
And in another innovation to the awards format, a completely new award has been created, which will become a regular feature of HSP going forward – namely, Best Environmental Project. The winner was Giesecke+Devrient with its Banknote Fiber Extraction (BFE) technology, with special commendations going to CCL Secure and Banco de Portugal.
BANKNOTE AWARDS
Best New Banknote – Bermuda
The Bermuda Monetary Authority won the Best New Banknote, or rather Banknotes, award for the 2 and 5 Bermudian dollars(B$), issued last November on SAFEGUARD® polymer substrate under the theme ‘Same Look, Smarter Design’.
Designed and printed by De La Rue, they incorporate a number of innovative security features. These include half windows which are fully and partially transparent, depicting a cloudy sky and an underwater scene viewable from both sides of the notes. Surrounding these windows, features such as ILLUMINATE™and ROTATE™ are fully integrated into the iridescent ink design of waves,multiple fish, and a sun, that appear when the notes are tilted.
In addition, the notes feature the silver ARGENTUM™ in the form of a tuna fish and Enhanced GEMINI™ that appears under UV light. They also have raised dots as an aid to the visually impaired.
Best New Series – Curaçao and Sint Maarten
The winner of the Best New Series was the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, with not just a new series (including coins as well as notes) but a new currency – the Caribbean guilder. This went into circulation on 31 March, replacing the Netherlands Antilles guilder, with exceptional thought given not just to the design and features, but to engaging and educating the public about their new currency.
The change has been a long time coming, given that the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in 2010, with Curaçao and Sint Maarten then forming a monetary union with a shared central bank and currency. But the wait has been worth it The theme of the new Caribbean guilder is ‘The World Under the Sea’ and both notes and coins have been designed with a distinctive Caribbean identity, celebrating the natural beauty, cultural heritage, and biodiversity of the two island nations.
The colourful new banknotes were designed and produced by Crane Currency with a landscape front and portrait reverse. Each features a different form of marine life and significant building or beach. Security features include a watermark with electrotype, MOTION SURFACE® stripe, SPARK Flow® in the shapes of shells which change from blue to green, and 3mm wide RAPID HD® Detect micro-optics threads.
Best New Commemorative Banknote – Guatemala
This award went to the Banco de Guatemala (Banguat) for the 1 quetzal commemorative note issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the national currency, named after the Resplendent Quetzal, the Central American country’s national bird.
The Q1 is only the second commemorative banknote in Banguat’s history, and the denomination has been brought out of retirement, having been replaced by a coin in 2012. It is similar in design to the previous editions of the note, but has been produced on paper rather than polymer and was printed by Giesecke+Devrient.
The note features a portrait of General José María Orellana, President of Guatemala from 1921 to 1926 who introduced monetary reform and oversaw the introduction of the quetzal. The key security feature is an octagonal varifeye® ColourChange patch, depicting the iconic arch of Santa Catalina in Antigua Guatemala. The patch is gold in reflected light, with a window on the reverse that appears in transparent blue when the note is held up to the light. When the banknote is rotated, a change between the years 1924 and 2024 is optically visible.
Best New House Note
The Best House Note Award was first introduced at the sister event HSP EMEA last year, but such was the demand and pace of innovation that it has now been extended to Latin America and the Caribbean. The winners of this inaugural award for the region were Casa da Moeda do Brasil, BlendPaper and Hueck Folien for the Cotton Cycles House Note, produced to highlight the importance of using natural resources in the production of banknotes, and reducing resource waste.
These themes were explicit in the design of the note, with the history of cotton cultivation featuring on the front, and the production of security paper from banknote waste on the reverse.
Casa da Moeda do Brasil printed the note on a substrate from BlendPaper made of recycled fibres from shredded Brazilian real banknotes under the Tran$forma initiative, a pioneering and scalable solution that enables the reuse of banknote fibres as raw material for new security papers. The Optomove® micro-optics security thread was made from recycled PET and aluminium and supplied by Hueck Folien.
ID DOCUMENT AWARDS
Best New Passport – St. Kitts and Nevis
The Ministry of National Security,St Kitts and Nevis has been awarded Best New Passport for its innovative 2024 ePassport—making it the first nation in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to win a High Security Printing award.
The new ePassport builds on St. Kitts and Nevis’ legacy as the OECS pioneer in digital travel documents, having first introduced ePassports in 2010. The 2024 version introduces a durable polycarbonate data page and a new secure issuance system that improves the process from application through delivery.
The passport design celebrates national heritage, drawing from the pre-Columbian island names ‘Liamuiga’ (St. Kitts – ‘fertile land’) and ‘Oualie’ (Nevis – ‘land of beautiful waters’), with interior imagery reflecting the motto ‘Country Above Self’. Visual and UV elements guide the holder through the islands’ landscapes and flora.
Security features include tactile elements, optically variable magnetic ink, and transparent windows, ensuring it is one of the most secure government issued documents in the Caribbean.
This series represents a technological and symbolic leap forward balancing security, efficiency, and cultural identity while reinforcing St. Kitts and Nevis’ role as a leader in high-security travel credentials.
Best New National ID Card – Peru
Peru’s National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC) has been awarded Best New National ID Card for the 2024 launch of its DNIe 3.0 (Documento Nacional de Identidad Electrónico) an advanced electronic identity card engineered to support secure digital transformation.
Made of polycarbonate and embedded with a Common Criteria EAL6+ chip, the DNIe 3.0 offers secure, contactless functionality and complies with ICAO standards for international interoperability. It incorporates biometric verification, digital signatures, and encrypted authentication.
The card features multi layered security elements, including optically variable inks, UV fluorescence, a Changeable Laser Image (CLI), microtext, a transparent DIDT inlay, and laser-engraved tactile data ensuring resilience against forgery. A machine-readable zone and encrypted QR code support automated identity verification across digital and physical platforms.
The visual design honours Peru’s heritage with imagery of Machu Picchu, Asháninka textiles, and the pre-Columbian archaeological site, Chan Chan. Citizens can use the DNIe for secure access to government services, electronic voting, and digital transactions.
Supported by 31 decentralised personalisation centres and robust PKI infrastructure, the DNIe 3.0 represents a transformative leap toward a fully integrated digital identity system combining strong security with accessibility and national pride.
Best New National ID System – Guyana
The Government of Guyana has been recognised for its groundbreaking new biometric ID system, developed in partnership with Veridos. More than just a card, the initiative represents a secure, fully integrated national identity ecosystem supporting inclusive public services and digital transformation.
At its core is a polycarbonate ID card featuring advanced security technologies: Spectre ID (a dynamic image of a running jaguar symbolising national pride), Magic ID (optical animation for visual verification), and CLIP ID (high-resolution, colour portrait embedded directly into the card structure). These innovations offer robust fraud resistance and durability.
The system enables biometric verification nationwide, ensuring all citizens urban and rural can securely access government services such as healthcare, education, financial systems, and social support. With full compliance to international standards, the citizen’s ID is interoperable with global identity infrastructure.
Beyond technology, the project reflects deep cultural identity and civic pride. Veridos supported implementation with tailored strategies and capacity building, ensuring sustainable operation and national ownership.
Guyana’s new ID system marks a transformative milestone blending world-class security with national symbolism and laying the foundation for a digitally empowered future.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT AWARD
This is the first time an award has been made for environmental projects in the cash industry. Eight projects were submitted, and all were extremely high quality, offering examples that other organisations could adopt or follow.
The entries for the environmental awards were assessed against five criteria – their environmental impact, how easily they could be implemented and scaled up, their innovation and creativity, the leadership and vision implied in the projects and the broader influence and engagement that they might create.
Winner
Papierfabrik Louisenthal GmbH won the award for its Banknote Fiber Extraction (BFE) solution. Central banks are seeking new ways to use unfit cotton banknotes, going beyond burning them for energy recovery to create a proper circular economy.
While shredded cotton banknotes are a valuable material, to convert them into new products is not a one step process. Louisenthal’s BFE solution addresses this problem in a novel, low impact way transforming unfit banknotes into material useable and useful for recycling and reworking in business areas which nearly all economies have.
While the BFE equipment can process papermill waste, it has also been designed to be connected directly with high speed sorting machines, and the output can be briquetted in the same way as traditional shreds.
This solution, therefore, is suitable for nearly all economies and extends the opportunity for cotton banknote waste to add value far beyond energy recovery solutions.
Commendations
In addition, two special commendations have been made for projects within this category which were assessed to have special merit:
First was CCL Secure, which has developed a Banknote Waste Management (BWM) programme which helps its customers recycle their unfit polymer notes. CCL Secure in Latin America has followed an extended producer responsibility route to help customers manage their polymer waste and access appropriate recyclers whether in the country, region or further afield. The result is that all its customers recycle their polymer waste.
Second was Banco de Portugal, which has initiated a programme of sustainability work across energy, the circular economy, less cash movement and coin management, the last of these being a pioneering coin swap agreement across the Eurosystem. Banco de Portugal has been working with Banque de France and Casa da Moeda do Brasil. This is a tangible example of what a central bank can achieve with a strong focus on sustainability.
