Joh. Enschedé of Haarlem is one of the oldest printing houses in Europe, founded in 1703. It printed Dutch guilder notes for generations, produced euro banknotes from the very beginning of the first series, and left banknote manufacturing altogether at the end of 2016.
| Country | Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Printing site | Haarlem |
| First-series printer letter | G |
| Europa-series printer letter | P |
| Europa-series control number | 1 |
| Status | Closed — banknote production ended in 2017 |
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands examining a printed sheet during a visit to Joh. Enschedé in Haarlem.
Three centuries of security printing
The firm began as a general printer and typefoundry and moved into banknotes, stamps and securities in the nineteenth century. By the time the euro arrived it was a full-service security printer working for several European issuers as well as for De Nederlandsche Bank.
Its euro work spans both series: the letter G in the first series and P, control number 1, in the Europa series.
Leaving the banknote market
The company informed its staff on 1 December 2016 that it would stop producing banknotes, and production wound down through 2017. The reason given was the state of the international market: long-standing overcapacity, aggressive tendering, and state printing works competing for export orders at prices private houses could not match.
The Dutch allocation has since been printed elsewhere in the Eurosystem, in particular in France. Joh. Enschedé continues as a security printer in other fields.
Reading the code on a note
Notes printed in Haarlem open their production code with G in the first series and with P in the Europa series. Because production stopped in 2017, the Europa letter P belongs to a closed and comparatively short run. The structure of the code is described in printing offices and printer codes.
