Crane Currency
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Crane Currency

Crane Currency supplies central banks with design services, currency papers, and banknote printing services as well as anti-counterfeiting technology to issuing authorities and brand owners. Crane Currency is headquartered in Dalton, Massachusetts. The company was originally named Crane & Co. and is owned by Crane NXT.

Stephen Crane was the first in the Crane family to become a papermaker, buying his first mill, "The Liberty Paper Mill," in 1770. He sold currency-type paper to engraver Paul Revere, who printed paper money for the American Colonies. In 1801, Crane was founded by Zenas Crane, Henry Wiswall and John Willard. It was the very first paper mill in the United States west of the Connecticut River. The company's original mill had a daily output of 20 posts (1 post = 125 sheets). Shortly after, in 1801, Crane began making cotton currency paper for local, as well as regional banks. In 1844 Crane developed a method to embed parallel silk threads in banknote paper to denominate notes and deter counterfeiting.

In 1879, Crane grew when Winthrop M. Crane won a contract to deliver U.S. currency paper to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. To shore up resources for this contract, Crane expanded its capacity with four new mills engineered by world-renowned mill architect David H. Tower. Tower, a native of Dalton, would remain connected to the development of the company throughout his career, having gotten his first start in mill architecture working as an apprentice to rebuild Zena Crane's Red Mill in 1846. Crane produced both the yellow (issued in 1883–1884) and the white (1884–1894) watermarked security papers for the nation's Postal Notes. These early money orders were produced for sale throughout the postal system by the Homer Lee Bank Note Company (1883–1887), the American Bank Note Company (1887–1891), and Dunlap & Clarke (1891–1894). In 1922, Crane & Co. incorporated, with Frederick G. Crane elected as president.

In 2002, Crane purchased the company Tumba Bruk from the Central Bank of Sweden (Riksbank) and operates this today as Crane AB.

In 2016, Crane announced plans to build a new banknote printing facility and customer experience center in the country of Malta. This announcement was delivered by then Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. The facility is 15,000 square meters in size with space for three print lines. The facility, budgeted at US $100 million, started operations in spring of 2018.

In 2017 Crane Currency was sold to Crane Co., now known as Crane Holdings.

In 2023, Crane Currency and its sister company Crane Payment Innovations (CPI) formed Crane NXT (NYSE: 'CXT') separating from Crane Co. (NYSE: 'CR').

Originally, the operations making paper for writing and for currency were closely related, however they became more independent over the decades. By the 2010s, the company had been making stationery items in North Adams, Massachusetts for some time, while the currency business was centered in Dalton. Stationery sales accounted for less than 10% of the company's revenue. In 2015, the company spun off its stationery division, via a management buyout. The new company retained the North Adams factory, as well as Crane & Co. and related trademarks. In 2018, Mohawk Fine Papers purchased Crane Stationery. Mohawk is a family-owned company headquartered in Cohoes, New York. In 2020, Mohawk announced its intention to close the North Adams factory, citing market disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting that some paper companies had fared quite well during the pandemic, the chief executive of Mohawk said "If you are making toilet paper, you are a winner..." Mohawk planned to manufacture items under the Crane trademarks at its Cohoes factory. In March of 2024 Crane was sold to WP Strategic Holdings, a private investment and consulting firm based in Albany, NY.[1]

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