IAG December 2015

Tech Talk
The Art of
Cash
Giesecke & Devrient has
become one of the most trusted
names in high-volume cash
processing for casinos, banks
and other cash-intensive
enterprises. It all started
from the company’s passion
for banknotes, fostered
over its 160-year history of
manufacturing them.
Munich-based Giesecke & Devrient is a leader
in large-scale cash-processing technologies,
providing fast, reliable, fully-automated, highsecurity
systems designed to meet the needs of
organizations including central and commercial
banks and cash-transit enterprises as well as casinos.
G&D’s cash-processing technologies are a natural complement
to its other big segments — manufacturing banknotes as well as the
production of substrates and foils. G&D is one of the world’s leading
suppliers of both banknotes and the paper used to print them. It has
printed more than 125 billion banknotes for various currency zones
and exports banknote paper and high-security foil to more than 100
countries. In 2014 alone, it produced 22,500 tons of banknote paper
and 15 million square meters of security foil.
G&D began as a printing business founded in Leipzig, Germany
in 1852 by Hermann Giesecke and Alphonse Devrient, who set out
to establish new technological standards for the banknote printing
industry. Through the acquisition of Papierfabrik Louisenthal in
1964, the company eventually became involved in the production of
banknote paper and security foil.
Earlier this year, Inside Asian Gaming was privileged to attend a
special media event hosted by G&D in Munich that included a tour
of its Louisenthal paper mill and foil plant and a half-day seminar
covering topics ranging from the future of payments to the challenges
of banknote design.
The Louisenthal facility is nestled in the Bavarian countryside
an hour’s drive south of Munich, and it would be putting it mildly
to say security in and out of the building is tight. In contrast to the
impression given by its rustic surroundings, the inside of the plant
is decidedly high-tech, dominated by special-purpose machines
churning out bobbins of security foil and reams of banknote paper in
a multitude of hues for various nations.
20
inside asian gaming December 2015