Photopolymer Holograms Top Pira's List of Disruptive Technologies in Security Printing
The introduction of holograms or more correctly Diffractive Optically Variable Image Devices onto banknotes was a more gradual process, having first been introduced in 1989 it was not until the late 1990’s that it showed truly disruptive potential, when the number of DOVIDs on banknotes went up 500% from 1997 to 2002. In the same time-frame however the sales of Dot-Matrix systems for making digital holograms which could simulate sophisticated optical devices, such as the Kinegram®, became widespread and within five years the first high-quality counterfeit euro banknotes with Dot-Matrix generated fake DOVIDs appeared. This sparked off a race to develop new Optically Variable Devices (OVDs) that looked entirely different from embossed rainbow holograms.