All you wanted to know about Making Money!

I thought that would grab your attention …

Let’s face it we all love having money … and there is still something special about holding that crisp new £20 note in your hand.

I’m tempted to say “too good to spend”!

• The paper for the Bank of England notes is made by a specialist paper manufacturer.      
• It is manufactured from cotton fibre and linen rag, which makes it tougher and more durable than the more common wood paper pulp.
• The watermark design is engraved in wax and, like the metallic thread; the image is incorporated into the paper at the manufacturing stage.       

 

The Bank of England has issued banknotes sine it was founded in 1694 and all their notes are now produced by De La Rue Currency (a subsidiary of De La Rues plc) situated at Loughton in Essex.

Clearly the problem of counterfeit is critical.

That’s why there are steps at every stage is to ensure that the note is as difficult as possible to counterfeit.

Some images are engraved by hand into metal plates, whilst others are created using a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system and are drawn onto film by a laserbeam.

When finished, the images are duplicated many times onto printed plates ready for the presses. Specialised inks used to produce the notes are also manufactured on site; approximately 85 are required for the four denominations.

I was going to tell you about the banknote printing process, which involves … Offset Litho, Intaglio and Letterpress, but I’ll save that for another day!

In the meantime, just take a moment to wonder at the amazing detail portrayed on that bank note…