Zyra's website //// Money //// Finance //// Site Index

Banknote Printers

Here are a few companies who have printing factories where they can print banknotes. Mass production of currency has to be a quality print job with economy of scale. Customers come from around the world and look for the best all-round deal in money printing. However there are some important things to realise (see at end of page).

De La Rue - Currency - UK

Royal Mint - one of the most famous banknote factories in the world

Giesecke & Devreint - Germany

Orell Fussli Security Printing - Switzerland

Joh Enschede - Holland

Canadian Banknote Company - Canada

Francois Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire - France

...

If you run your own country and you need some money printing for the currency of the country, various banknote printing companies may offer competitive quotes for the print runs. Orders should be in the thousands of millions, to achieve economy of scale. For smaller runs, see below.

Print your own money? Yes, you can print your own money and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's not the same as printing someone else's money (forgery)!

In effect, a banknote such as a dollar bill or a twenty pound note or a five euro note, is a promise by the country/federation to pay the bearer the sum stated on the note. In the UK, for example, a five pound note is like an I.O.U. from the Queen. The Queen is generally considered very creditworthy and so people have confidence that the banknotes are worth what they say they are worth.

Although it's legitimate for your to write IOUs and sign them for yourself on behalf of yourself, it's dishonest to write IOUs on behalf of someone else! Just as surely as you can't honestly write a note promising to pay some money and sign it as someone else who is then expected to pay up, you can't sign notes on behalf of the Queen, government, federation, etc.

However, you can print your own money if it's clearly stated that it's YOU who are making the promise, signing the IOU, etc. The notes have to be made clearly non-confusing with anyone else's currency. Also, people may decide for themselves whether your creditworthiness is good enough to trust the value of the currency you are issuing. You have to be careful not to print more money than you are worth, or you might get hyperinflation!

If you are an individual and you'd like to see your face on a banknote, see www.novelty-banknotes.net (gone? coming back?) , which is a new banknote printing company where small run-offs are possible. If you'd like a few million printing, that's the place to go!

(Novelty Banknote site is hoped to be live soon after the next issue of this site).

If you would like to issue your own money, how about writing cheques?