One of the most significant factors affecting the demand and specification for banknotes in the first decade of the new millennium has been the Euro currency.

Not only have all the Eurozone state printers and a number of commercial banknote printers focussed on Euro production, but the standards and procedures established by the European Central Bank have been adopted by countries as far away from Frankfurt as Uganda and Namibia, which have adopted aspects of the Euro production protocol as a standard for their own banknote issue. Namibia, for example, will only accept ground transport with armed guards for new banknote deliveries, and Uganda insist that their notes are printed on paper produced by ECB-accredited mills.