INKSURE has been talking a lot about the need to explore more anti-counterfeiting options for coins. In The Anti-Counterfeiting Blog and the recent paper Taggants: The Machine Readable Authentication Solution for Coins we warn of increased coin counterfeiting and give various reasons for why we think coin anti-counterfeiting should be given the same amount attention as banknote security.

Well, it turns out we are not alone. Currency News, just published the editorial Are Notes and Coins So Different? Unite We Say!

But Currency News takes it a step further. While we are trying to convince central banks and mints to invest in coin anti-counterfeiting research, Currency News thinks that these entities should do that and more. The language reminds us of revolution cries:

"It is clear that banknotes and coins have a lot more in common than their respective industries would like to think - apart from the obvious one, which is that both are tools for transactions. It is time to recognize the fact that the challenges to the currency industry lie in other forms of payment and especially all forms of transaction cards. The transaction card industry spends huge amounts of money promoting their products, both individually as companies and in associations - the currency industry does not do either. The time has come for change - it is essential for the well-being and maybe even the future survival of the industry," said Currency News.

Market currency usage? Compete with credit and debit cards? That is a lot to ask from a tender that just had its first conference dedicated exclusively to it. If the currency industry is going to heed these calls and bring coins into the fold, anti-counterfeiting solutions for coins will have to be developed very quickly. If coin usage increases, coin counterfeiting will have increase as well.