History of the Currency Office
The Currency Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network is a young institution, and the currency it issues is younger still: the first note of the Network was put into circulation less than a month before the Office was established. The milestones below record how the credit came to exist in physical form and how responsibility for it passed to the Office. They will be extended as the First Series enters circulation.
Before August 2026
The credit as a unit of account
Before there were notes or coins, the credit existed only as a unit of account. Payments between member organisations of the Network were settled by book entry, and staff and citizens were paid and made purchases through account balances denominated in credits. There was no physical currency and no body responsible for one.
June to July 2026
The Interim Issue is prepared
In anticipation of the establishment of the Office, notes of 5, 10, 20 and 50 credits and coins of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents and 1 credit were printed and struck under contract to a transitional cash office. The Interim Issue was designed for speed of production, in a single colour on plain paper, with four security features.
10 August 2026
The Interim Issue enters circulation
The first physical currency of the Network was put into circulation through banks and the cash offices of member organisations under transitional arrangements. The transitional cash office began the register of currency in circulation that the Office now maintains.
10 August to 5 September 2026
The transition period
In four weeks 4.19 million notes and 12.7 million coins, with a face value of 65.41 million credits, were issued. Fourteen counterfeit notes were detected, eleven of them imitations of the 50 credit note tendered within nine days at three sites. The design and production of the First Series was completed and the stock delivered to the Office's vaults.
6 September 2026
Currency Office established
The Currency Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network was formally established, with responsibility for the design, issue, distribution, withdrawal and replacement of the banknotes and coins of the Network, the register of currency in circulation and the examination of suspected counterfeits. It assumed responsibility for the Interim Issue from the transitional cash office.
6 September 2026
Official website launched
The Office launched currency.gov.vin, carrying press releases, the specifications of both issues, the security features of genuine notes, the counterfeit reporting procedure, the conditions for exchanging damaged currency and the Office's statistics on currency in circulation.
6 September 2026
First Series announced and first statistics published
On the day of its establishment the Office announced the First Series of five notes and eight coins, to enter circulation between 5 October and 7 December 2026, published its procedure for reporting counterfeit currency and issued its first statistical release, recording the position at the close of business on 5 September 2026.
Forthcoming
Issue of the First Series and withdrawal of the Interim Issue
The 5 and 10 credit notes and all coins of the First Series enter circulation on 5 October 2026, the 20 and 50 credit notes on 2 November and the 100 credit note on 7 December. The Interim Issue ceases to be legal tender on 30 September 2027. The opening of the Office's exchange counters and the second statistical release, in January 2027, will be announced in the Newsroom.
Announcements are published in the Newsroom. For the Office's present responsibilities and structure, see About the Currency Office; for the chronology of banknote issues in particular, see Banknotes; for the figures behind the transition period, see Notes and Coins in Circulation.