Christina Cristiano
Thank you, Aaron, and good morning again. I would like to echo Aaron's appreciation of our global associates for their continued strong execution this quarter. Starting on slide 7, as Aaron mentioned, we delivered third-quarter results that were in line with our expectations.
Sales grew approximately 14% year over year with core sales growth, which excludes the OpSec acquisition of nearly 5%, driven by international currency. Adjusted segment operating margin of approximately 27% reflects continued dilution from OpSec and an unfavorable product mix year over year. Adjusted free cash flow conversion was approximately 89% and was impacted by the timing of shipments, which skewed toward the end of the quarter and increased our working capital requirements at quarter end. Finally, we achieved adjusted EPS of $1.16.
Moving to our segments. CPI reported core sales growth of 1.5% in the third quarter, reflecting mid-single digit growth across all end markets outside of gaming. Adjusted segment operating margin grew 170 basis points year over year to approximately 31%, reflecting disciplined pricing execution and productivity initiatives driven by CBS.
Looking across our end markets. While gaming performed as expected in the quarter, order rates have not accelerated as anticipated, driven by pushouts from our OEM customers. Outside of gaming, our other end markets are performing as anticipated, and we continue to expect full-year revenue growth in the non-gaming verticals to be in the mid-single digits. In total, we expect CPI revenue for Q4 to be approximately flat year over year.
Moving to security and authentication technologies on slide 9, sales grew 36%, including sitting OpSec, which is executing as planned. Core sales were up over 10%, driven by higher international currency shipments. Adjusted segment operating margin was approximately 22% in the quarter, reflecting dilution from the OpSec acquisition and an unfavorable mix in Currency.
We continue to have a very healthy backlog, up approximately 57% year over year with Currency up over 40%. Given this position, we have very high confidence in our full-year revenue projections for the segment.
During the third quarter, we had several exciting developments across [SAT]. In Crane Currency, which continues to win share with leading and differentiated technology, we are pleased to partner with the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten on the launch of their new series of banknotes, the Caribbean Guilder, which will be released to the public in March 2025.
Not only are the notes beautifully designed, but they are the first banknotes in the world to feature two Crane micro-optics technology features on each banknote. We are very proud to partner with the Central Bank on this important milestone.
At OpSec, this quarter we began a pilot with a major sporting league to implement a new on-field authentication program where upcycle supply secure tags, embedded with RFID technology and software, to track and trace game-worn articles. This will allow these highly sought after items to be more accurately authenticated by consumers. This is an exciting extension of our product offering, and we are enthusiastic about its potential for application with other sports leagues.
Moving to our balance sheet on slide 10, we repaid approximately $65 million of outstanding debt in the quarter, ending with net leverage of approximately 1.7 times. Our strong free cash flow generation allows us to continue to focus on investing inorganic growth, paying down debt, and paying a competitive dividend, while maintaining flexibility to deploy capital for future strategic M&A.
After the anticipated close of the acquisition of De La Rue Authentication Solutions in the first half of 2025, we estimate our net leverage ratio will be approximately 2.3 times.
Turning to our 2020 for guidance on slide 11, we are narrowing our sales guidance range to plus 6% to plus 8% growth based on our strong backlog and currency and performance of OpSec offset by headwinds from the gaming end market in CPI. Additionally, we are narrowing our full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $4.22 to $4.30 from $4.20 to $4.35, reflecting mixed headwinds with growth in Currency more than offset by continued softness in gaming which comes at a higher margin.
Considering the timing of certain international currency shipments, which are now expected to happen later in Q4, we are lowering our adjusted free cash flow conversion guidance to approximately 70%, given that collections on these shipments will be in early 2025.
Finally, given the recent announcement by the US Federal Reserve on their expected 2025 Currency orders, I wanted to provide an update on the new US currency program. As many of you know, the US is in the process of redesigning its currency with the release of the new $10 note scheduled for 2026, followed by a new banknote release every two years thereafter, ending with the launch of a redesigned $100 bill in 2034.
As the sole supplier of US currency paper for almost 150 years and the supplier of the blue micro-optics strip on the current $100 bill, we remain very confident in our positive relationship with the US government. Like all countries redesigning their currency, we anticipate that the US will continue its leadership in utilizing market-leading anti-counterfeiting features in the new notes. We look forward to the public announcement on the specifics of the design of the new $10 bill in late 2025 or early 2026.
As discussed in prior earnings calls, we are upgrading certain papermaking equipment at our Dalton, Massachusetts facility in Q4 2024, which will extend through Q1 2025. This project is on track and represents the final step in our preparations for the new US banknotes.
Additionally, in late September, the Federal Reserve published its 2025 print order, which indicated that volume would be down approximately 18% year over year and that the mix would be skewed toward lower denominations.
As a reminder, order volumes are set entirely at the discretion of the Federal Reserve. The reduction in demand was attributed to normalization of inventory volumes post-COVID and the shared commitment of the Fed and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to allocate production capacity to essential projects, including the new banknote series.
As a result, we expect volume for US currency to decline double digits in 2025, consistent with the Fed's anticipated orders. We remain highly confident about the long-term growth prospects for Crane Currency from this significant program undertaken by the US government. We are very proud to partner with the Fed and the BEP on this journey and look forward to the launch of the new $10 bill in 2026.
We will be providing additional updates on the US currency program as well as our 2025 full-year guidance in more detail during our Q4 earnings call.
Now let me turn the call back to Aaron to provide some closing remarks.
Aaron Saak
Thank you, Kristina. In closing, Q3 has been very busy for the Crane NXT team. We continue to execute our strategy. We are building a resilient business focused on market-leading technologies that secure, detect, and authenticate our customers most valuable assets.
Our team executed well in Q3, delivering double-digit sales growth in core sales growth of approximately 5%. We continue to utilize CBS to improve productivity and drive margin expansion. And we also continue to deploy our capital to M&A, utilizing a disciplined framework to build upon market-leading positions in growing markets. I am confident that as we continue to execute this strategy, we will see significant shareholder value creation.
Thank you again for your time this morning. And I would like to also thank our associates around the world for their commitment to our customers, our communities, and all of our stakeholders.
And now, operator, we're ready to take our first question.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Matt Summerville, D.A. Davidson & Co.
Matt Summerville
Maybe Aaron, Christina, if we can maybe talk about CPI for the first question. Let's talk a little bit more detail around how we should at a high level, be thinking about the verticals for 2025. What sort of change with respect to the go-forward cadence in gaming, number one.
And then number two, just again, kind of big picture. These are a collection of businesses. We generally think about inclusive of price capture growing at mid-single digits. And it sounds to me like that may need to be reined in a little bit next year because of what's happening in gaming. But I want to make sure I understand that fully, and then I will follow up.
Aaron Saak
Yeah. Thanks for that, Matt. Well, you know, as we discussed in the prepared remarks, as we look at the CPI this year, certainly vending, financial services, retail performing as expected, and we're going to end this year in those verticals growing at mid-single digits. For gaming, let me start first with the market. And again, we think this is a very healthy end market where we have a unique leadership position and that comes with high margin.
So we really like that business. What we've seen in Q3 is that order rates were slower than we expected. And this was after some green shoots, as you remember in Q2 that we talked about last quarter. And what we're seeing in is as our OEM partners are consuming inventory as we expected, but the really moving to lower levels of inventory, lower than what was on hand pre-COVID. So they're improving their working capital.
And at the same time actually, our supply chain is performing very well and our lead times have significantly improved. They're now down to about 48 weeks for gaming components. So when you put those two together, what we've done here, both for the fourth quarter and to your question, how we think about next year, we've adjusted the forecast in Q4. We now expect orders to continue to improve but at a slower pace than we originally anticipated. And this is what's giving us a CPI revenue in total for Q4 that we expect to be approximately flat year over year.
And again, the rest of the markets, the rest of the inver -- end market verticals growing and ending 2024 with mid-single digit growth.
Matt Summerville
And Aaron, as a follow up, just talking about the currency business, how should we be thinking about -- I know you mentioned USG revenue is -- volume I should say it's going to be down double digits. Revenue may be down a little bit more than that, just given that you're going to have micro-optic headwind on mix.
So I guess I'm trying to understand what are you doing to kind of mitigate that impact? And this huge international driven backlog you have in currency, is that enough to sustain respectable growth for the SAT business organically in 2025?
Aaron Saak
Yeah. Thanks, Matt. I think you're framing that up correctly. The USD the volumes will be down, as Kristina mentioned, double digits, just simply based on the Fed order rate. Now that's going to be offset by, again, very strong growth in currency. We feel fantastic about that international backlog and how that business is performing. And then, of course, we have OpSec now in the segment and that'll come in and start to lap in May are into the core business.
So I think in total, you know, for some guidepost here, when we look at our NXT for 2025, I think when you add in the headwind from US currency and you look at the rest of the portfolio, I think revenue is going to come in about flat in 2025. And we're obviously continue to take action, driving productivity and cost through CBS, which you can see in the performance of CPI this quarter. And we're going to execute on the OpSec synergies. Those are going very well.
So I would expect '25 to have segment adjusted operating margins in the same range that we saw this year, offsetting the dilution that we'll see from OpSec in the headwinds from the US government mix of -- as you indicated.
Matt Summerville
That statement on flat, Aaron, I just want to make sure I'm interpreting that correctly. Is that flat organic for total SAT or are you talking about Crane NXT overall, again, just like the guidepost for '25?
Aaron Saak
Yeah, thanks, Matt. Just to be clear, I am talking about Crane NXT, total company revenue flat approximately flat in '25. And of course, we're in the middle of our planning process and we'll have a lot more fidelity on that guidance during our Q4 earnings call.
Matt Summerville
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Mike Halloran, Baird.
Mike Halloran
Just to follow up on Matt's question there one less time again, does that include the acquisition like De La Rue that's not necessarily part of the run rate numbers yet when you talk about flat overall?
Aaron Saak
Yeah, I know, Mike, it does not include De La Rue and just out of I think doing the right thing here, we will assume no contribution from De La Rue until it officially closes. And then, of course, we would update guidance correspondingly,
Mike Halloran
Just -- That makes a lot of sense, just making sure. And then following up again on the US base and then the overall impact for that -- for the currency business. Is the logic or thought process for US-based business then -- that '26 becomes essentially a more normalized year? And then how the $10 ultimately plays out from a content perspective is where the variability comes in? In other words, '25 depressed, '26 more normalized? And how are you thinking about it at this point?
Aaron Saak
Yeah, I think -- thanks, Mike. I think that's generally correct. I think what we'll look for is the actual release date of the $10. I think that's still the unknown here. And you know, it's a positive tailwind to the business. The earlier it's released the better for us as that will effectively stop the supply of the current incumbent $10 bill and replace it with the new issue, which again, we believe will have a higher technology content on and we feel confident about that.
So I think it's really normalization in '26, as you said, with the upside of the timing of the release of the $10 that creates a natural glide path to improved revenue and margins in the US business over time.
Mike Halloran
And then last one in related on the normalization side. When you think about '25 mix and you put it in historical context so that US-based currency business, is this pretty close to the lows in terms of the mix for you guys or maybe just give some context on that side of things?
Aaron Saak
Yes, very much near the lows for us. If you look at the mix and you just take the midpoints, it's skewed heavily to the lower denominations. And if you zoom out and you would say, let's look at COVID through 2025, you kind of get a reversion to the mean on the mix where there was a lot higher production of $100 bills and $50s during the early years of COVID.
So you're exactly correct, the mix is lower versus normal. And we would expect over time to that revert back to kind of a mean of a traditional order volume of $100s and $50s and $20s going forward.
Mike Halloran
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Operator
Bob Labick, CJS Securities.
Bob Labick
So yes, obviously, a lot of exciting announcements over the quarter. And I was wondering, could you give us on the authentication side a breakdown of your end markets pro forma, the De La Rue assets where will your primary sales be focused and how should we think about the end markets, you know, will be in pro forma De La Rue?
Aaron Saak
Yeah, that's fantastic. So -- and a great question, Bob, thanks for that. So again, we have these three, call it end markets or segments for De La Rue. Government will be, and that's government tax stamps primarily, will be about 45% of the business and really create a leadership position for us. Then we have ID documents. So think of passports, the polycarbonate pages in passports. That's going to result in about 30% exposure, to call it the government ID or civil ID business which we're very excited to have a strong position in.
And then brand protection will be effectively the remainder. So it's 25% of the business. And again, that's more consumer brands. Think of sports leagues, think of CPG type custom -- companies, that creates the balance. So when you add that together with OpSec, what we really like here is this diversification of the end markets of Crane NXT that adds a lot of resiliency to the portfolio. And it also aligns to secular tailwinds where we see growth in security features in all three of those kind of segments.
Bob Labick
Okay, great. And then what other end markets and authentication are you still targeting? And like pharma you've talked about, I guess, in the past and stuff and now that you're going to have a much larger scale, how do you think about kind of the build versus buyers' each end market, something you should talk you're buying scale into and then growing inorganically? Or how do you think about the next step in continuing to grow as they say?
Aaron Saak
Yeah. I think that's a really, really good question, Bob. So I agree with at least with your thesis that now we've created a very strong income property in Florida properties inside of authentication. Particularly when you think post close as we get into the second half of next year with De La Rue and OpSec coming together, I think that's really a build, right? We keep building off of that core. And we add in technologies, just like we announced today with TruTag that act as accelerators to that strategy.
And we have a very healthy funnel of technologies that become product line extensions off this now strong core business. And I think you could see more of that coming. We like the technologies that we can add and utilize our channel and we get very good returns off of that. Like we're expecting for TruTag with high double-digit ROICs by year three.
I think on markets, you're exactly right. If there's one area where there's some interesting possibilities for us to explore is around pharma and healthcare more broadly -- there are properties in that space. And that's not a strength for us right now. That's really not one of those three or four markets that I discussed. And so that's, again, we're prosecuting an M&A funnel, and that's very helpful for us in some opportunities.
I think also outside of the end markets, you can think about geographies as well. So OpSec and De La Rue will give us a very nice exposure, particularly in Europe and North America and growing exposure in Asia.
And that's another geography for Crane NXT to further expand into where you have demographics and secular tailwind in those end markets. So that's how we're thinking about it, Bob, and feel very confident in the funnel.
Bob Labick
That's great. Thank you so much.
Operator
Damian Karas, UBS.
Damian Karas
Aaron, I think you hinted at currency margins holding at similar levels in 2025 compared to where they are now. I think that would be pretty impressive feat just given the mix factors at play and how profitable that US currency business is.
So could you just elaborate a little bit like is that the case for both the US and international side, like you're kind of expecting comparable margins? Or is it more like the internationals going to -- expansion is going to be offsetting some of the dilution in the US? And would you maybe just able to quantify like the cost actions you're taking to help us out a little bit?
Aaron Saak
Yes. Thanks, Damian. And let me let me get a little more specific to be helpful. What I was referring to for segment adjusted margins was for NXT in total. For next year that -- this year, our guidance as Christina updated, was between 26% and 28%. I think we're going to be in that range again next year. And that is a combination of productivity actions.
Again, the drive in CBS, you see that in what's occurring this year. I'm very proud of how the team has executed that, particularly in CPI. And the execution of the OpSec synergies which are on track and we have clear line of sight to.
I think there will be, as you get into the segment level due to the specifics of your question, there'll probably be a little headwind in the SAT segment offset by some goodness in the CPI segment. I think that's where in total for the portfolio of NXT will end in about the same range.
I'd like to hold off, though, out of courtesy here, Damian, until we give our 2025 guidance on any specifics related to those actions as we will be rolling those out here as we progress through the rest of the year into early next year.
Damian Karas
Understood. Thanks for clarifying. Maybe I could just ask you about TruTag, how should we be thinking about modeling kind of like the financial impact on an annualized basis? I recognize you said it's not going to have much of an impact on the end of the year here.
Aaron Saak
Yeah, Damian, it's really not a material adjustment. I would certainly make or advised to make to the model. It's more of a signal for us of how we can find technologies and add on incrementally to this portfolio we're building that truly differentiated and utilizes our channel. For us, it's going to be a few million dollars of sales over the next few years. So again, it's largely de minimis in total to NXT, but it's a growth driver in OpSec and in the authentication business.
And you know, again, shows I think we're being very disciplined in our approach and we're going to generate very good returns on being able to find technologies like that as a leader now in this industry, partnering with small companies and startups and bringing them in and utilizing our channel. We are -- we have a healthy funnel of other opportunities like this.
Damian Karas
Got it. That's really helpful. And one last one, if I could. Just going back to the gaming discussion. You did sound a little bit more positive on the orders normalization last quarter. So I'm just curious as may be like you are seeing some pull forward demand for whatever reason, you know, the second quarter, third quarter. And that's what kind of solve a little bit of a tick up. And then now you're seeing kind of these OEM pushouts.
Could you just maybe talk a little bit more on that? And kind of where are you foreseeing a light at the end of the tunnel here on some of that kind of inventory correction from you're gaining customers?
Aaron Saak
Yeah. Thanks, Damian. I think you're framing that right. We did see some green shoots in Q2, and that probably was within one or two of the OEMs putting in some orders that did not repeat at that level as we got into Q3. And that's where we just want to be very prudent here with our forecast as we go forward.
I go back to the fact that the end markets are healthy. We have a leadership position here in this market and the margins are very strong for us in the business. We see of the pull -- the drawdown of inventory occurring.
We think when we look at now, what inventory turns are probably going to be for those OEMs as they proceed forward and the strength of our lead times being shorter, it's driving to a lower inventory holding at those OEMs. So we think it's going to play out as expected, directionally, but it's going to take another quarter [two] to get back to a higher level of run rates. And that's why we've adjusted Q4. And I think we would expect a low single-digit type growth in that market as we exit 2024.
Damian Karas
Got it, makes sense. Really appreciate you taking our questions.
Operator
Ian Zaffino, Oppenheimer.
Isaac Sellhausen
This is Isaac Sellhausen on for Ian. My question is on CPI. Could you talk a bit about pricing cost, some of the productivity initiatives, maybe how you've helped drive higher margins despite the mix shift there? And then related to that, are you still taking price maybe some of the end markets outside of gaming and sort of your expectations for segment margins as you work through the balance of the backlog there?
Christina Cristiano
Yes, I'll take that one Isaac. So, you know, it's a great opportunity to just congratulate our team whose -- they're just doing a really great job at executing and leveraging the CBS system to drive productivity. And even despite lower volumes, as we've seen, they've been able to hold margin. So it's just really excellent work for the entire CPI team. We continue to be price cost positive. And so that's just again, just a very disciplined execution of pricing.
And even though there's been unfavorable mix because of gaming coming at a higher mix in the portfolio, we've been able to mostly offset that through pricing and productivity. So overall, feeling really good. The margin levels we expect to continue. And if anything, as Aaron said, there could be a little bit of positivity there next year, just in the initiatives that will be driving related to productivity.
Isaac Sellhausen
Okay, understood. Thank you. And then separately, on the free cash flow conversion for the year, and I guess the adjustment given the currency shipments, I know it's obviously early, but I mean, looking out till next year, I mean just currency shipments have a similar impact on free cash flow conversion. Any other major factors that we should consider there?
Christina Cristiano
Yes. It's a great question, Isaac, and I'll take the opportunity to emphasize that nothing's changed in our business model, and we continue to have high confidence in our ability to generate strong free cash flow. This quarter, we were impacted by the timing of certain shipments, and that's going to play out again toward the end of the year. We knew our revenue was more heavily weighted toward the back half of the year this year.
But we have greater visibility now into the timing of certain specific shipments, and it's -- the shipments are later than anticipated. So it's creating working capital inefficiency. Now, thinking longer term, this is a project currency. The project-based business, as you know, and over quarter to quarter, there could be some variation. But if you look at it over a long period of time and for NXT in total, we expect that the conversion will be approximately 100%.
Isaac Sellhausen
Okay. Thanks, Christina.
Operator
Bobby Brooks, Northland Capital Markets.
Bobby Brooks
I'd like to give some color on the growth strategy for product authentication. (inaudible) on your guidance that as I see it as a really major opportunity for Crane NXT, and you guys now have OpSec for a couple several months. De La Rue's product authentication come in the first half of '25 and the smaller TruTag technology acquisition last week.
So you're very into a pretty sizeable business there. Where do you see the growth opportunities come? I know these businesses you've acquired are in the mid-single digit plus growth rate range. But do you think the combined portfolio you're building will be able to drive that sort of call it a high single-digit plus range?
Aaron Saak
Well, hey thanks, Bobby. And to your point, we couldn't be more excited about the deployment here of capital into segment, and we think it's going exactly as anticipated with the integration of OpSec. And so when you back up to your point, you think about why we're excited where we're going to grow. I would point to what Christine I talked about in their prepared remarks of some really interesting new opportunities we have for sure.
Wallet expansion on some of our major brand protection customers where we're incorporating new technologies in offering a higher value prop to them and for their consumers. And that comes at attractive margins and is truly green field, right? We're adding a new services and new offerings that did not exist before.
So we think that the market is growing at this mid-single-digit plus. We have an opportunity, certainly to your point. To help perform that, we want to be prudent as we are still in the process of integrating the acquisitions. And of course, De La Rue is not really part of the portfolio at this point in time. But I think in every one of these markets, as Bob asked the question of where are you exposed to. Brand protection, we see opportunities like Christine talked about.
In government tax stamps, we see opportunities where we become a leader to add more services into our government customers, similar to what we've done in being a technology leader in currency. And then when you now add on civil ID and the ID offerings where you can incorporate our authentication features with the polycarbonate production capability De La Rue brings, it's a really exciting space for us to be in.
So we're aligning the portfolio to secular tailwinds, and we're providing best-in-class technology and we're adding in on top of that like to TruTag, technologies that give us incremental opportunities through.
So I think your thesis is right. I think all three of those areas, of these kind of share of wallet and green field expansion opportunities. And that's what you're going to keep hearing us talk about as we move forward with the integrations and the closing of the acquisitions.
Bobby Brooks
Got it. That's really good color. Then maybe just piggybacking on those prepared remarks, that Christina gave about the on field professional sports jersey with the embedded RFID and software to tracking trace (inaudible) through OpSec. Could maybe just talk about how that deal -- how that project when came about? And then also is this something that for all jerseys in that league throughout the entire season? Or is it maybe test run through the first quarter of the season? Just a little bit (inaudible) provide any more color you can give on that?
Christina Cristiano
Yes, I'll start, and Aaron fi you want to chime in, you can jump in at the end. This really is just about great relationships that OpSec has with its -- with their customers and they're able to develop and cultivate new ideas working with our customers in this case, partnering with a new way to authenticate.
And although you're thinking specifically about jersey, it's not specific to jerseys per se, but think about the entire sorting equipment associated with that league, where you would want to really know what game would this merchandise used in and who was involved, which sporting teams. And that's where our authentication is very accurate and timely. And so we've got the database that backs it up and now combining this with RFID to track that on an off-field movement and makes it even more accurate.
So it's very exciting and this is a test run. So just to use your words, right? So this will be a test run which is a few teams. And we're really excited for the opportunity to potentially expand this, not only in the league that we're operating with right now on the pilot, but also into other sporting league. So it's just a really great opportunity.
Bobby Brooks
Got it. Yeah, that is really exciting. And then just last question for me on M&A. Obviously, you guys have your long-term goal of getting to the $3 billion mark. And so I'll just kind of the, you know, M&A that you executed this year, just really focus on expanding the product authentication piece. So I was just curious, is that going to continue to be the focus going forward on M&A? Or does it shift to the businesses that have fallen under the CPI banner?
Aaron Saak
Yeah, thanks, Bobbie. Why don't I take that one? You know, I would say just when I zoom out on capital allocation in general and in our growth strategy, it is all driven around ensuring that we're creating shareholder value. And so that's where you want to have a disciplined approach. And that's going to continue. And I think you see that with OpSec and De La Rue, you see these opportunities, like we've highlighted here with TruTag, both on differentiated technologies and generate a high return. And so that's not going to change.
And the funnel remains very healthy both on authentication and other areas. To your point it's just, as you know, sometimes it's quite episodic [what] comes across the line at any point in time and you can get closed. So really no change. Our priorities here year to drive value for the shareholders, invest and drive the course, to see that again, we feel very confident, particularly in the US currency business long term. We're going to continue to pay the competitive dividend that we've done since we've separated and then execute on M&A.
And you know, we've always said we're going to do one to two deals a year. You could argue this year we've done three in this next year, and I expect as we go into '25 we'll keep on that pace of one to two deals a year, doing exactly what we said we were going to do, and I feel very good about that.
Bobby Brooks
Fair enough. Thank you for the color.
Operator
Matt Summerville, D.A. Davidson & Co.
Matt Summerville
Thanks, Aaron. I apologize, but I feel like am I missing something here? One, I want to make sure I understand. When you said big picture, high-level sales flat for total Crane NXT. Is that organic? That's my first question.
Aaron Saak
Yeah. So that would be assuming that a -- of full-year contribution of OpSec next year going forward. So that OpSec all in for next year. And of course, the Currency and CPI businesses, it does not include anything for De La Rue authentication.
Matt Summerville
Okay. So the first that includes the first four months of the year worth of contribution from OpSec. So that is -- so that's included in that flat sales comment, I guess.
Aaron Saak
Correct. (multiple speakers)
Matt Summerville
There's some disconnect then, Aaron. Either something in CPI is misaligned with I'm thinking for next year or the drag on currency is going to be even bigger than I would've thought? Can you help me try and kind of piece that together a little bit?
Bobby Brooks
Yeah. So to your point on currency in the US, we expect those declines due to the US. We expect very strong mid-single digit, mid-single digit plus type growth coming out of OpSec and international combined. And then we when we look at CPI, you know, we're expecting that business with the headwinds we're seeing in gaming as we just discussed to exit the year and start back growing at low-single digits in 2025.
Matt Summerville
Got it. Thank you.
Aaron Saak
Hopefully those triangulates in Matt, in your model.
Matt Summerville
Yes. Thank you, Aaron.
Operator
Damian Karas, UBS.
Damian Karas
Hey, guys, just following up here. Aaron, you did sound very positive and I'd say increasingly positive on the chances that this $10 redesign is going to include micro-optics. So that's great to hear. Obviously, the devil's in the details on what exactly the US government decides for these bills. But is there is a simple way to think about the upside opportunity on that $10 note with micro-optics versus without it?
Aaron Saak
Yeah, just to be clear, Damian, we do feel very confident on our relationship. It would be far premature and presumptive of me to talk in any more specifics about that. In terms of the way to think about the value creation from the change, if you look at the current US $100 bill, that cost about $0.17 cost of goods for the Federal Reserve, that's data they publish. So that's public information, depends on the year a little bit, but it's around $0.17.
When you look at the $1 bill, the lowest in terms of security features, that's about $0.07. And you can safely assume the difference the delta between those cost due to technology and counterfeiting features.
So I would expect the new $10, assuming it has more technology features, you know, to be incrementally above the current cost of the existing $10, and you can probably use those two numbers I gave you it's kind of [gold] post for how to model out the difference in cost. And certainly, we will benefit and much of that cost or some of that cost can be attributed to us in the security features we provide.
Hopefully, that helps a little bit, but again, I can't get into the specifics of the particulars of the design of the $10. But again, we feel very confident it will include advanced security features.
Damian Karas
No, I totally get it. That's helpful. Thank you. And then just one follow up on the free cash flow guidance change. Christina, you mentioned it's basically a shipment timing going from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, if my math's right so we're talking kind of like $55 million to $60 million. So could you just -- is our math right? Is it one single project shipment of that magnitude, that's just kind of slipping a little bit and you have visibility into recovering that, collecting on that early in '25? Or this is a kind of a multiple -- a multitude of projects that are just kind of seeing that same trend?
Christina Cristiano
Yes. Thanks, Damian. Let me just clarify that this was not a delay in shipment. There's no change to our revenue forecast, but because the timing of the shipment is happening later in the period, it impacts our ability to collect the cash before the end of the year. It's a few significant projects related to our international currency business. And you can expect that the collections from those shipments will now happen in Q1 as opposed to Q4.
I will just caution though, and I think you know, this Q1 tends to be our lowest quarter in terms of cash flow conversion. And so although the shipments will move in, you will still see pretty moderate free cash flow conversion in Q1 when that's just based on seasonality of the rest of the business.
Damian Karas
Okay, understood. Thanks a ton.
Operator
I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Aaron for closing remarks.
Aaron Saak
All right. Thank you very much. I'd again like to thank all of our NXT team members for their very strong efforts here in Q3. It was certainly a busy quarter and we continue to execute our strategy, operating the businesses, driving productivity, executing on the M&A, doing exactly what we said we were going to do.
So thank you again for everyone and their questions today who joined the call. We look forward to our Q4 earnings as we report at the beginning of 2025. Thank you again, and have a great day.
Operator
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.
