This book is about the most precious "piece of paper" we know, about banknotes and about the industry that makes them. We have banknotes in our hands daily. Modern life would be unthinkable without them, yet we know nothing about how they are made or who makes them. This secrecy is regularly explained as "legitimate" special security for a very special product. But it also has to do with the unusual, highly politicized structure of the market in which central banks, as well as state and private banknote printers, operate. The armaments industry immediately comes to mind. This obsession with secrecy, however, seems out of place in the era of the internet. After all, banknote printing involves the massive use - and often waste - of taxpayers' money.





This is the first book offering an in-depth view of the banknote industry and its modus operandi. The only known former attempt to reveal this story was by an American author (Terry Bloom: The Brotherhood of Money. The Secret World of Banknote Printers, BNR Press, Port Clinton, Ohio 1983). The edition of that book was bought up - straight from the printing presses - by two prominent Swiss representatives of the industry because the public was not supposed to get an inside view of the business. Today Bloom's book is hard to find even at dealers specialized in old books. An American dealer in 2002 had one copy on offer for 150 Dollars.





MONEYMAKERS has been researched over a five-year period in Europe, the USA and Latin America. The book is based exclusively on personal interviews and confidential material normally not accessible to outsiders. There were attempts to stop this research project. Many witnesses interviewed spoke under condition of strict confidentiality for fear of reprisals by their employers. As a rule therefore, the author refrained from verbatim quotes and, as far as possible, tried to confirm every piece of information by two independent sources.