News in Brief

Indian ATM Goes for Gold

The first ATM that dispenses gold coins has been installed in India, in the southern city of Hyderabad, offering customers a facility to purchase gold with credit or debit cards without going into any physical jewellery stores.

Gold is seen a safe and preferred form of investment in India, which is the world’s second largest consumer of the commodity. Two-thirds of India’s gold demand usually comes from rural areas, where jewellery is a traditional store of wealth.

The ATM is the brainchild of GoldSikka. It can store up to 5kg of gold, operates 24/7 and dispenses coins in a choice of eight weights between 5 and 100 grams, the price of which is updated in real time according to market prices.

Bulgaria Gets Ready for Euro

Bulgaria has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the European Commission and the Eurozone group president, paving the way for the country to start minting its own euro coins once it receives approval for eurozone membership.

The MoU regulates the practical steps for Bulgaria to take in order to strike certain quantities of test coins with the common face designs of the euro coins and the selected Bulgarian national designs, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a statement.

Bulgaria, which joined the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) – referred to as the ‘training ground for euro adoption – in 2020, is targeting January 2024 as the date of accession to the eurozone. The final decision on its accession will be made by the European Council.

As and when Bulgaria’s accession is approved, it will become the 20th country in the EU to adopt the euro.

Nominations Open for IACA Currency Awards 2023

Nominations have opened for the 17th round of the ‘Excellence in Currency Awards’, run by IACA (the International Association of Currency Affairs) and sponsored by Coin & Mint News™ sister publication Currency News™.

The awards will be presented at the Gala Dinner at the Currency Conference in Mexico City on 16 May 2023, and comprise four categories, one of which is dedicated to Best New Circulation Coin or Coin Series. There are also categories for Best New Currency Public Education Engagement Programme and Best New Environment Sustainability Project (both of which are also applicable to coins). The fourth category is Best New Circulating Banknote or Banknote Series.

Nominations in all categories are limited to the eligibility period from 1 October 2021 through 31 January 2023. The deadline for nominations is 6 February 2023. Nominations must be submitted through IACA’s award site – currencyaffairs.awardsplatform.com.

MDC-TC Aligns with IMD

The Mint Directors Conference Technical Committee (MDC-TC) has now been renamed the International Mint Directors Technical Committee (IMD-TC), in line with the renaming of the MDC as the International Mint Directors Association (IMDA) and the associated International Mint Directors Network (IMDN).

The IMD-TC held its latest plenary meeting, the 36th, in-person at the TEMAN conference in Singapore in early November, which included 13 working group meetings and 13 presentations covering the latest topics relevant to the minting industry.

The occasion was used to restructure the committee’s work programme – which in addition to benchmarking in the minting industry, coin anti-counterfeiting and authenticity, the Customer Task Force and future payment systems (including the coin-note boundary), also covers a range of technical and management topics for design, production, automation and inspection, environmental best practice, quality guidelines and demonetisation, to name a few.

The next IMD-TC meeting will take place in April/May 2023.

Getting More Donation Dollars Out There

The Royal Australian Mint (RAM) has launched a new initiative to get more Donation Dollars into the hands of Australians in the lead up to Christmas.

This initiative, which is being rolled out in newsXpress retail stores across the country, encourages people to swap their change for Donation Dollars and increase charitable giving in the lead up to the Christmas holiday season.

The Donation Dollar coin is designed to be instantly recognisable with the words ‘Give to Help Others’, and a green centre with a gold ripple design emanating from the centre symbolising the ongoing impact each donation dollar makes to those who need it most.

Since its launch in September 2020, the RAM has released 6 million Donation Dollar coins into circulation. The goal is to continue circulating Donation Dollars until 25 million are released. If every Australian donated a Donation Dollar just once a month, it has the potential to raise an additional $300 million annually for those who need it most, said the RAM.

To date, 2.8 million Australians have found and donated one or more Donation Dollars to a charity or a business or person in need. Independent research commissioned by the RAM shows that the average donation prompted by the Donation Dollar is $21, equating to approximately $59 million in donations generated by this initiative so far.