Endurance™ with AST®

Type: Durable banknote substrate — enhanced cotton-fibre paper with proprietary anti-soiling surface treatment

Overview

Endurance™ is Crane Currency's premium durable banknote paper, incorporating the company's proprietary AST® (Anti-Soiling Treatment) technology. It is a highly engineered, homogenous fibre matrix that resists wear and soiling, increases banknote durability, and delivers a clear cost benefit to issuing authorities. Unlike polymer banknotes, Endurance™ retains the look, feel, and behaviour of conventional cotton banknote paper while significantly extending service life — requiring no public education campaigns or ATM recalibration.

Technology & Composition

Endurance™ uses a reinforced cotton fibre matrix with exceptional mechanical strength. To this 100% cotton fibre matrix, Crane Currency adds a proprietary AST® surface sizing which impregnates the paper, improving printability and ink durability, boosting mechanical strength, and acting as a barrier to soiling and moisture. 

The engineering logic behind AST® addresses a specific failure mode of conventional varnish-based durability treatments: many varnish solutions can crack when subjected to mechanical stress, contributing to fibre failure and providing openings for soil and grease to penetrate. In contrast, Endurance™ paper impregnated with AST® has no layers that can break or separate. The treatment is integrated into the paper matrix itself rather than applied as a surface coating, making it structurally robust throughout the note's circulation life.

The endurance product utilises cotton-based waste products from the textile industry as its raw material, making it uniquely sustainable. The cotton fibres used are those too short to be spun into thread — a standard raw material for the banknote paper industry — processed at Crane's international paper mill in Tumba, Sweden, which has manufactured security paper since 1755.

Performance & Security Compatibility

Endurance™ represents two decades of proven performance in circulation, with no impact on watermark quality or security feature performance, and excellent press-room performance. Crane Currency's Circulation Simulator has tested over 150 banknotes from across the globe and from every major brand of durable banknote solutions, with banknotes printed on Endurance™ high durability paper among the most durable banknotes tested.

Endurance™ works seamlessly with all public security features, including MOTION®, RAPID®, and MOTION SURFACE® security threads. All standard banknote production processes — intaglio, offset, screen printing, hot-stamping of foils and threads — are compatible without special equipment or additional process steps.

Economic Case

The primary value proposition of Endurance™ is economic: by extending the service life of notes in circulation, central banks reduce the frequency and volume of replacement print orders. Crane Currency's development of the AST treatment was directly prompted by a real-world durability problem — the Swedish 20 Krona note had a problematically short lifetime of six to nine months due to heavy use. By developing the anti-soiling treatment using different mixes of cotton to build a stronger and more durable note, Crane was able to expand the lifetime of that note by two to three times.

The substrate also avoids the transition costs associated with polymer adoption: no public education campaigns are needed, and existing ATM and cash processing equipment requires no adjustment, since Endurance™ notes behave identically to conventional paper notes from the perspective of both users and machines.

Notable Deployments

Endurance™ high durability paper saw its first use in 2006 by the Central Bank of Egypt Printing Works. Central banks around the world, in a variety of circulation environments, are using banknotes printed on Endurance™ durable banknote paper with good results. Specific named deployments beyond Egypt are not publicly disclosed by Crane Currency, consistent with the confidential nature of central bank substrate procurement.

Name

Endurance™ with AST®

Category

Substrate

Company

Crane Currency
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Linked Substrates

1 substrate