De La Rue is the best known commercial banknote printer in the world and the one euro printing house that has always been based outside the euro area. Its presence in the production code is a reminder that accreditation follows technical standards rather than membership of the single currency.
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Printing site | Gateshead and Loughton |
| First-series printer letter | H |
| Europa-series printer letter | H (Loughton) · J (Gateshead) |
| Europa-series control number | — |
| Status | Accredited; Gateshead banknote manufacturing ended in 2023 |
The Debden site at Loughton, Essex, where banknotes are printed. In the Europa series the Loughton works carries the printer letter H.
A British printer of continental money
The company has printed currency since the nineteenth century and works for a long list of central banks. It produced part of the first euro series at Gateshead under the letter H, and in the Europa series two of its sites are listed separately: H for Loughton in Essex and J for Gateshead.
The Loughton letter carries a curiosity of its own. In the first series the letter A had been reserved for the Bank of England works at Loughton and was never used for euro production; the Europa series brought the same site into the code under a different letter.
A shifting industrial footprint
De La Rue reorganised its currency division through the 2020s. Banknote manufacturing at Gateshead ended in 2023, the site having latterly served as a back-up facility, while the company continued to operate the Bank of England’s Debden works under contract.
Because the United Kingdom never adopted the euro, no De La Rue letter has ever been tied to a national issue. Each note simply records where its sheet was manufactured.
Reading the code on a note
An opening H or J in a Europa-series production code points to a De La Rue site. Neither letter is listed with a Europa control number in the reference tables. The full grammar of the code is set out in printing offices and printer codes.
