When war with Britain broke out in 1812, the Treasury began issuing Treasury Notes, a paper banknote, to finance expenditures.

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Portals, a firm it acquired in 1995, has an even longer heritage: it began supplying banknote paper to the Bank of England in 1724.

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Every time a paper cup is used for coffee, a banknote is used, an email is printed, the post arrives or a physical newspaper is read at a desk, the paperless ideal disappears back into the mythology it came from.

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