KINEGRAM®
KURZ (Germany)
KINEGRAM® is a proprietary diffractive optical variable image device (DOVID) developed by OVD Kinegram, a member of the KURZ Group, and stands as the world's only security foil technology exclusively reserved for banknotes and government documents — it is not available for any commercial application.
Unlike conventional holograms produced through e-beam or dot matrix techniques, KINEGRAM® uses a non-holographic, vector-based, computer-generated origination process that works with precisely controlled diffractive microstructures. The manufacturing process is kept strictly proprietary, even within KURZ itself, making reverse engineering or replication by counterfeiters practically impossible. This fundamental difference from holographic technologies — which are widely used in commercial packaging and consumer goods — is central to its security value: the absence of any commercial application means there is no legitimate supply chain that counterfeiters can exploit or reference.
When tilted, KINEGRAM® features produce a wide range of striking optical effects including kinematic motion, colour shifts, contrast reversals, rotational movement, and expansion effects. The precision and complexity of these microstructures exceed what is achievable with conventional holographic techniques, delivering visual effects with exceptional brilliance and brightness that are immediately recognisable to the public.
First applied to a circulating banknote in 1988 on the 5,000 Austrian Schilling, KINEGRAM® has been proven in circulation on billions of banknotes over more than three decades. It is trusted by leading currency issuers worldwide, including the European Central Bank, and its long deployment history provides central banks with confidence in both its durability and its continued resistance to counterfeiting as reproduction technologies evolve.
KINEGRAM® can be incorporated into banknotes via security threads, registered stripes, stripe-over-window features, applied patch labels, and standalone patches, offering central banks flexibility in how and where the feature is positioned on a note. The technology supports a high degree of design customisation, enabling issuers to specify unique visual effects, movement patterns, and aesthetic elements tailored to their currency's identity and security architecture.
| Security Feature | Banknotes |
|---|---|
| 111 | Stripe | Front | Diffractive | KINEGRAM | 3 |
| 112 | Stripe | Front | 8mm | Registered | Diffractive | KINEGRAM | 2 |
| 344 | Patch | Front | Diffractive | KINEGRAM | 10 |
| 19 | Patch | Front | Registered | Diffractive | KINEGRAM | 1 |
| 110 | Stripe | Front | Registered | Diffractive | KINEGRAM | 11 |
| 334 | Patch | Front | 15mm | Diffractive | KINEGRAM | 1 |
| Total Unique Banknotes | 28 |
- Name
- KINEGRAM®
- Category
- Security Feature
- Effect Types
- Diffractive
- Company
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KURZ
Company Website - Product Page
- View on Supplier Site
- Linked Features
- 6 security features