Bundesdruckerei GmbH — STELLA – The Next Black Banknote of the EX NIHILO-Series

Koenig & Bauer AG

SICPA SA

ATELIER FÜR SIEBDRUCK · LORENZ BOEGLI

CCL Secure Ltd.

LANG LASER-System GmbH

LEONHARD KURZ Stiftung & Co. KG

Leuchtstoffwerk Breitungen GmbH

Susonity GmbH

Domino Deutschland GmbH

Bundesdruckerei GmbH

The next banknote of the EX NIHILO series, called STELLA – Latin for “stars” – is dedicated to the theme of sustainability in a truly radical sense. We reduced the size of STELLA to the smallest format possible – the size of a credit card – which naturally meant that less of everything was required – less substrate, less ink, and less energy – making the note consequently more sustainable. Yet, the smaller the banknote, the greater the challenge of integrating everything a banknote needs – especially security features. To meet this challenge, we developed an innovative edge-to-edge strategy, positioning the features along the edges (some of them even split into two halves) rather than in the middle, with their effects continuing seamlessly from one edge to the other.

Money is on a journey – a journey of becoming increasingly digital and – losing its material presence. A journey towards nothingness. This transformation brings new requirements. The EX NIHILO series, in which STELLA is the second note, is an innovation project with industry partners designed to explore these requirements by asking whether money must still preserve its traditional shape and design. The absence of light represented by the colour black is a symbol for nothingness. That is why all our notes are black. However, since black is the maximum absorption of light, we could no longer print with light-absorbing colours as we normally do on a white substrate. Instead, we had to use light-reflecting pigments. We literally had to print light!

The birth of carbon: To achieve a deep black, we need carbon. That is why we chose carbon to be the main character of the overarching story: the story of black carbon as it unfolds in the universe. Each banknote of the series represents one chapter of this narrative. STELLA, the next note of the series, travels to the place where carbon is born: to the stars! In a process called “nuclear fusion” lighter atoms fuse to form heavier ones, such as carbon. Every carbon atom on Earth, every carbon atom within our bodies, was once created in a star. That is why we are literally stardust. We are children of the stars! Stars form galaxies which is why we chose a galaxy as the main motif of our new house note.

The design of STELLA pursues two aims:

(1) On the verso, an eye appears, its delicate lines shimmering in a colour shift from gold to green. When the note is turned, the centre of this eye transforms into the centre of the galaxy. And when light is held behind it, the window becomes a tiny projector. By casting an image of a foetus onto the surface beneath, we are reminded that we are children of the stars.

(2) To honour our origin from the stars we decided to waste a little less stardust than usual. We reduced our banknote to the smallest format possible – the size of a credit card: 54 mm by 85 mm or 2.13 in by 3.35 in. In its compactness, STELLA does not merely depict sustainability, it embodies it, by simply requiring less of everything: less substrate and less inks.

In a series of banknotes of varying sizes, it is always the smallest denomination which is the most challenging, because its limited space makes it difficult to accommodate every security feature. With STELLA, we went even further with its smallest size possible making the challenge even greater.

To meet this challenge, we developed an innovative edge-to-edge strategy, placing security features along the edges rather than in the middle allowing us to save valuable space. The task was to select features whose effects – even when split into two opposing halves – continue seamlessly from one side to the other.

The Mandelbrot fractal embodies infinity and thus becomes a perfect theme for our house note, whose motif – the stars – opens into endless space. One half of the Mandelbrot forms the top window, the other the bottom window, following our edge-to-edge strategy. SUSI® Optics JAZZ™, a pure offset feature by Koenig & Bauer brings the fractal to life as the note is tilted. Black intaglio on a black substrate extends the fractal structures across the window edges – yet only fully revealed when excited by UV light.

Our edge-to-edge strategy also applies to the KINEGRAM® ZERO.ZERO® patch with KINEGRAM® VIVID effect from KURZ depicting the curvature of space caused by a black hole at the centre of most galaxies and the denomination “3K”. The patch is split into two parts and positioned at opposite edges.

The most dominant window – the centre of the eye, is reserved for the key message of STELLA: We are children of the stars! The image of a foetus is projected when the window is illuminated with a light beam. Just as ripples on water bend light to cast patterns onto the bottom of a pool, Skylight^TM, an optical feature from SICPA, bends light and projects an image onto the surface beneath.

The edges of a banknote are among the first things visually impaired people explore. It therefore felt natural to place the tactile marks along the edges. Using a laser, we cut clearly distinguishable notches into them. Since notching and cutting are one and the same process, perfect registration is achieved – resulting in precisely aligned half circles on both sides of the note.

Since tactile marks at the edges are already being evaluated on ID cards, we consulted our ID department to obtain feedback from visually impaired users on this new type of tactile marking. Their response made it unequivocally clear that visually impaired users strongly prefer edge-based tactile marks over conventional ones, as they provide more distinctive and reliable tactile feedback.

Making our banknote as small as possible not only makes it more sustainable, but also more efficient in production: nearly 100 notes fit onto one single sheet allowing us to save energy, time and costs.

STELLA’s credit card size brings another advantage worth mentioning: With existing pockets for credit cards in our wallets there will be no need to ever fold such a banknote again – significantly extending its lifespan in the cash cycle.