Private printing works

By the 19th century at the latest, banknote printing had become a specialist field that was driven and developed by private printing works. Major printing works, which are still active worldwide, were primarily established in Great Britain, Germany and the United States.

The "Dondorf & Naumann" printing works was founded in Frankfurt in 1850. Its founders Bernhard Dondorf (1809-1902) and Carl Christian Otto Naumann (1794-1865) specialised in the printing of securities, banknotes and stamps from the beginning. Initially, they mainly produced banknotes for the German region, for example for the Frankfurter Bank or the Badische Bank. The company was also active internationally, for example for Japan, Luxembourg and Switzerland. With the centralisation of the banknote system from 1871 onwards, orders from the German area broke away and the traditional company had to close in 1932.

The "Giesecke+Devrient" company was founded in Leipzig in 1852. Hermann F. Giesecke (1831-1900) and Alphonse Devrient (1821-1878) initially specialised in high-quality letterpress printing. Shortly after the company was founded, they started another business area, banknote printing. At the company's head office in Leipzig, a highly technological production facility was set up, which was able to carry out almost all the work steps itself. It had its own engraving and guilloche department and a chemical laboratory and mechanical workshops. Giesecke+Devrient acquired a worldwide reputation as a leading security printing works as a result. Numerous orders from Germany, but also from Switzerland and Portugal, Thailand and Peru followed. The head office was moved to Munich in 1948. After expropriation, the parent company in Leipzig was declared a state-owned enterprise, the VEB Wertpapierdruckerei der GDR.

Banknote printing works were already established in Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century. "Waterlow & Sons" was the earliest company founded in 1810. First stamps were produced, then banknotes for countries all over the world. "Bradbury Wilkinson and Company", founded in 1824, was just as internationally active. Both were taken over by "De La Rue" in the second half of the 20th century. Thomas De La Rue founded the company in 1813 and initially produced playing cards. It was not until 1855 that the company began to print stamps and banknotes.

Another leading printing works that still exists today is the American Banknote Company in the United States of America. It was founded in 1858 by the merger of seven printing works. In addition to the printing works shown, there are other companies, such as "Orell Füssli" in Switzerland or "Enschede en Zonen" in the Netherlands or "Tumba Bruk" in Sweden. Not all of these printing companies still exist today or they have been absorbed by other companies.