Todays edition of the New York Times has an interesting article about argeli, a wild shrub found in the Himalayas, near Mount Everest, which is being harvested and sent to Japan to be converted into the substrate used for the new banknotes to be issued in July.

Originally Japanese banknotes were printed on substrate made from mitsumata, but its supply in Japan has been drastically reduced because of farmers migrating to other crops and Climate Change. 

While running a charity project several years ago to help Nepalese farmers to dig wells, Osaka’s Kanpou Incorporated stumbled onto argeli, which was found to be suitable to replace mitsumata for the production of banknote substrate. Now argeli is being grown in a volume sufficient to make it possible to replace mitsumata.

Source: New York Times, 16 April 2024.

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