Crane & Co.

Crane & Co., based in Dalton, Massachusetts, is a manufacturer of principally cotton-based paper products used in the printing of national currencies, passports and banknotes as well as in social, business, industrial and technical applications. Crane remains the predominant supplier of paper for use in U.S. currency (Federal Reserve Notes).

History

Stephen Crane was the first in the Crane family to become a papermaker, calling his mill "The Liberty Paper Mill" ^[1]. He sold currency-type paper to engraver Paul Revere, who printed the American Colonies’ first paper money. In 1801 Crane was founded by Zenas Crane, Henry Wiswall and John Willard. The company's original mill had a daily output of 20 posts (1 post = 125 sheets). Crane developed a method to embed parallel silk threads in banknote paper to denominate notes and deter counterfeiting in 1844.

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.. Crane produced both the yellow (issued in 1883-84) 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.

Federal Reserve Notes made from Crane & Co. paper

In September 2008 Crane initiated purchase negotiations with Visual Physics, a subsidiary of Nanoventions, based in Atlanta, GA. This purchase will give Crane exclusive control of MOTION, the micro-optic security technology used in the manufacture of banknotes.

CEO

• Zenas Crane
• Winthrop Murray Crane
• Lansing Crane (1995-2007)
• Charles Kittredge (2007-present)

References

[1]