FC Lourdais is a French rugby union club from Lourdes in Hautes-Pyrénées, formed in 1911. This honorary membership card for Monsieur Laurent Cami for the season 1926/1927 depicts the club’s name in a typeface that originated under the name Ancient Gothic.

Designed by William W. Jackson for the Keystone in Philadelphia, Ancient Gothic was patented March 17, 1891. The all-caps design features letters with open top and solid bottom halves. On the card, it was overprinted in red in a solid style, for a two-color effect. The same design was offered in Germany (by Krebs as Allegro) and in Italy (by Augusta as Beatrice). Some version also found its way to southwestern France.

The sticker by the Fédération Française de Rugby (F.F.R.) features the bold condensed style of Cheltenham. The years at the top are in some Clarendon variety. “Membre honoraire” is in inclined caps from a typeface with tiny serifs. It’s a version of Copperplate Gothic, possibly FTF’s Antiques Litho No. 4. The other typefaces are yet unidentified.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

January 1990, ft. an unidentified rounded sans

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

February 1990 ft. Italia Bold

C82 is the website of Nicholas Rougeux, a Chicago-based designer and data artist. One of the many great things one can find on C82 is his collection of train tickets sold by Metra. Every month, the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area releases a new ticket design. In 2004, Nick started collecting. Over the years, and with the help from other ephemera enthusiasts as well as of Metra, the archive considerably grew in size. At the time of writing, it includes an impressive 1,395 tickets, spanning more than fifty years of commuter history.

This post highlights the monthly tickets from 1990 and 1991. In a recent blog update, Nick comments:

In the early 90s, ticket designs varied significantly with new typography and visual styles appearing each month. I can’t say these are some of my favorites but I recognize that this may have been in an effort to curb counterfeiting. However, I do enjoy some of the typography from the 1990s tickets. I owe a big thanks to fellow collector John for these and others.

Each of the tickets features a different typeface. Many of the chosen fonts stem from the libraries of ITC (Korinna, Quorum, Serif Gothic, Zapf Chancery, …) and Letraset (Caxton, Italia, Romic (Letraset), …). There are also classics that go back to the era of foundry type, like Beton, City, or Optima, and Monotype originals like Albertus and Plantin. The typographic smorgasbord is completed by designs as diverse as Moderne Schwabacher, a turn-of-the-century blackletter; Salut, an upright script first cast by Gebr. Klingspor in the 1930s; and Checkmate, a futuristic sans with chamfered corners, dreamt up at Schaedler in the 1970s – all of which were either used still as phototype, or in the form of early digitizations.

For the year 1990, all abbreviated month names are shown in vertically stretched letterforms. The source of the stacked numerals (“90”) was identified by Quinn as City Bold, see comments. The bitmap caps (“D/A”) are likely custom. While the spelled-out month names and the ticket numbers are similar to OCR-B, the specific font appears to be a proprietary design with some differences, probably from a specialized printing machine.

The Metra logo seen on the depicted train as well as on some of the tickets is Crillee. See also the dedicated post about it.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

March 1990 ft. Macbeth

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

April 1990 ft. City Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

May 1990 ft. Checkmate

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

June 1990 ft. Roberta

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

July 1990 ft. what appears to be a version of Filmotype Amber (or a similar face)

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

August 1990 ft. Salut

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

September 1990 ft. Moderne Schwabacher a.k.a. Chalet Text

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

October 1990 ft. Clarendon Condensed

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

November 1990 ft. Beton Bold Condensed

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

January 1991 ft. ITC Quorum Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

February 1991 ft. ITC Kabel Ultra

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

March 1991 ft. ITC Serif Gothic Heavy with the pointed forms for M and A that were omitted from the digital version. “March 1991” uses ITC Korinna and Times New Roman.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

April 1991 ft. a bold variant of Plantin

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

May 1991 ft. a bold variant of Albertus

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

June 1991 ft. Caxton Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

July 1991 ft. Optima Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

August ft. ITC Cheltenham Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

September 1991 ft. ITC Zapf Chancery Bold with the alternate swash caps

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

October 1991 ft. a bold variant of Century Oldstyle

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

November 1991 ft. Romic (Letraset) Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

December 1991 ft. ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

In November 2019, Norway released the last note in their acclaimed new series of banknotes. After 18 years, the entire banknotes series feature one common theme – the ocean – instead of the traditional portraits of prominent countrymen and -women.

The original design and main concept for each banknote was conceived by the Norwegian design agency Metric Design and illustrator and artist Terje Tønnesen in 2014. The reverse sides are based on design proposals from fellow designers at Snøhetta.

Frutiger was predetermined for the primary type by The Central Bank of Norway and advisor and calligrapher Julia Vance. Sizes and font weights were up to the designers. Metric chose Frutiger Roman on the numerals for best readability and also to maintain a Nordic lightness in the overall designs. The designs were later adapted, modified and translated into banknote idiom by the in-house design team at the Central Bank of Norway, adding security elements such as micro text. The micro text is set in Helvetica.

The notes are printed on cotton paper with a number of different number of print techniques; offset, screenprint, foil, UV and intaglio for the primary motif and main typography. The slightly raised intaglio print can be felt by running a finger across the numerals, helping the visually impaired differentiate the notes.

See an extensive case study on Metric’s website. Snøhetta has a post about the reverse sides. Additional information about both front and back is available from the website of Norges Bank.

Two typefaces designed by Rudolf Koch, paired for Notgeld banknotes issued by the City of Darmstadt in August 1923, during the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.

Most of the text is set in three sizes of Deutsche Schrift fett (1910). The city’s name features Deutsche Zierschrift, a related decorated style with diagonal hatching, first cast in 1921. The numerals and roman capitals used for the numerical value are probably lettered.

Darmstadt lies about 30 km south of Offenbach, where Koch worked for the Klingspor type foundry since 1906.

The new £10 banknote issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland features the RBS brand typeface, RN House Sans. Numerals are a redrawing of a specimen from the Glasgow School of Art case room and most closely match Modern No. 20.

Scientist Mary Somerville’s quote and Norman MacCraig’s poem are rendered in Dutch 801 Italic (Bitstream’s version of Times) and a hand-drawn Scottish secretarial script, respectively.

Explore the elements of the currency at RoyalBankTen.com and visit O Street's design case study.

In August 1923, the Bayerische Bauindustrie A.-G., an incorporated construction company in Munich, issued a series of coupons worth 100,000, 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 marks — the devastating hyperinflation was in full swing. Although these pieces of Notgeld (“emergency money”) weren’t official banknotes, they had the backing of the Bavarian State Bank and the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior.

The amounts are spelled out in Lichte fette Grotesk a.k.a. Phosphor. Dated August 24th, 1923, the coupons are an early in-use example of Jakob Erbar’s inline caps. Several sources give 1924 as the year of first release for this typeface. The name wasn’t registered with the German association of typefoundries before January 31th, 1924, and a proof was sent in only on April 29th. The date of issue printed on the banknotes does not necessarily have to match the actual date of printing, of course – documents can be backdated for all kinds of reasons. However, considering the speed of the inflation in the course of 1923, it seems highly unlikely that these coupons were printed much later – they would have been worthless by November, when one US dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks. It is safe to say that Lichte fette Grotesk was available and in use already in 1923.

Having said that, with a production process that can take several years — from initial design to test cuttings and advance shipments to publicity – it is rarely possible to pinpoint a single date, and often one can’t even argue that one date is more correct than the other.

Note that both forms for K, R and S were used, in an apparently random manner. The other fonts in use are the bold cut (1910) of Feder-Grotesk, Erbar’s first released typeface family and a remarkably early example of a contrasted sans serif; and Wilhelm Jaecker’s Jaecker-Schrift (1912). Printed by the G. Franz’sche Buchdruckerei, München.

New Zealand’s banknotes are getting a facelift. The $5 and $10 notes will be released from October 2015, with the $20, $50 and $100 notes targeted for April 2016. The basic themes remain the same, depicting the same well-known New Zealanders, the Queen, and flora and fauna as introduced with the fifth series in 1991. According to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RB), this seventh series dubbed “‘Brighter Money’ includes improved security features, vibrant imagery, and innovative design”.

From the RB’s Bulletin:

To best achieve the design goals, the Reserve Bank uses an open tender process. […] Seven design proposals were submitted by six overseas companies.

It was […] important to consider whether the designs were aesthetically pleasing and representative of New Zealand’s cultural heritage. To evaluate the public perception of the different designs, the Reserve Bank conducted a number of confidential focus groups with a wide range of participants representing the New Zealand public, as well as tourists and visually impaired people. Further, Te Papa [the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa] assessed all design submissions with a selection of cultural, arts, botanical and ornithological experts.

The Reserve Bank was able to establish a set of requirements specific to the needs of visually impaired people, such as high contrast numerals, large fonts, greater colour variation between denominations, and above all, the continuation of varying sizes.

The designs submitted by the Canadian Banknote Company Ltd. (CBN) were the ones selected.

To many type designers, having one of their own creations used on currency may seem like a dream come through. In this case, not so for Kris Sowersby of Klim. To the designer of Karbon, these “new ‘funky’ banknotes” represent the “worst ‘fonts in use’ for me so far.”

Both the parody posted by Tommy Ill and Sowersby’s own tongue-in-cheek counter-proposal hint at where the rub is with the new series: too many unrelated and uncoordinated elements, in too many flashy colors. Graphic designer Andreas Weiland comments: “I guess if it’s in the specs that you have to use all layer styles in photoshop, it’s a pretty good solution…” While Sowersby’s radically minimalist fun sketch ignores most aspects of security and usability, it actually scores better on strong contrast and large type size, two main requirements for accessibility as defined by the RB. Now for the cultural representation …

Banknotes carry significant weight as representatives of the culture of a country, and are sometimes referred to as ‘a country’s business cards’. Therefore, the New Zealand public should be able to identify with the designs, and value their artistic appearance.

This is where opinions differ, and will always differ. Irrespective of the concrete stylistic and thematic direction, it is vital that responsible parties actually choose one such direction. Let’s hope that they start involving fewer voices in such processes — one discerning design professional is more valuable than a dozen well-meaning tourists — and that they stop aiming for a common denominator that pleases everybody, for it is too often a mingle-mangle that, in sum, hardly pleases anybody.

Preliminary designs as published by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in Bulletin, Vol. 77, No. 7, Dec. 2014.

Robert Kalina of Vienna won the competition to design the original 2002 series of euro banknotes. Reinhold Gerstetter of Berlin was selected to refresh the design in 2013.

Robert Kalina, designer of the 2002 euro banknotes, at work at the Österreichische Nationalbank in Vienna

2002 series security features.

2013 “Europa” series.

Most of the type is set in Eurostile. The numerals (“20”) appear to custom drawn for the notes.