How banknotes are made
Paper banknotes are cotton, strengthened with gelatin, with the watermark built in as the sheet forms.
- stations
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- things upstream
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- raw sources
- 20
- steps from the ground
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The short version
Most paper banknotes are printed on cotton paper, often blended with linen, made on a mold machine that builds the watermark and a thread into the sheet. Gelatin or polyvinyl alcohol strengthens the paper. Presses then print the layers of the design onto large sheets, which are cut into notes. Some countries print on plastic instead.
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Beat cotton and linen fibers
Cotton fiber, sometimes mixed with linen, abaca or other textile fibers, is blended with water into a slurry. Banknote paper is meant to resist wear far better than ordinary paper made from wood.
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Form with a built-in thread
On a mold-made paper machine, the watermark and a security thread are built into the sheet while it forms. The thread can look simple, but it is often built from several different layers.
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Strengthen the sheet
Banknote paper is infused with gelatin or polyvinyl alcohol rather than plain water, which gives it extra strength. It also lacks the brighteners that make ordinary paper glow under ultraviolet light.
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Print the layers
Large sheets pass through several presses, each laying down a layer of the design. Engraved-plate printing, called intaglio, is the traditional method.
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Inspect every sheet
Each sheet is checked automatically and by eye for printing faults before it is cut. Errors such as cutting and alignment mistakes can still occur and are caught here.
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Cut and bundle the notes
Guillotines cut the printed sheets into individual notes, which are counted into bundles for the central bank.
Worth repeating
- The average life of a paper banknote is two years.
- In 1988 Australia produced the first polymer banknote, made from biaxially oriented polypropylene, and by 1996 it had replaced all its paper notes.
- United States banknotes are made of cotton fibers together with 25 percent linen.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and banknote starts as these 20 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How banknotes are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/banknote