Coiniverse Continues to Expand

Coiniverse, the mobile app platform developed by the Mint of Finland and now adopted by several mints around the world in association with the collector community, has announced the addition of its newest member mint, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (IPZS) – the Italian Mint.

IPZS has recently launched its international webshop, with minted coins now available to international collectors directly from the mint. The Italian Mint is the ninth member to join the Coiniverse platform, representing ‘a great opportunity to continue along the path towards innovation and digitization of the minting art and get known from a wider pool of coin collectors around the world’, according to Matteo Taglienti, International Sales Manager at IPZS.

New Digital Mint Service

In addition to the newest member mint, Coiniverse users are now able to create their own collectable digital coin and add them to the app.

Released in November to mark the Coiniverse database reaching 100,000 coins, the new Digital Mint service enables collectors to design and mint bespoke coins digitally. Users can alter both the obverse and reverse sides of the coin to feature one of several designs, as well as shape, edging and material. The coin can be viewed from various angles as a 3D-object.

As with physical coins, mintage of these new coins is restricted to 1,125 unique coins, each with an individual code that will allow users to add them to their personal digital collections on the Coiniverse application.

Although mintage is very limited, Digital Mint does not involve the production of an NFT (Non-Fungible Token), nor do users need to use cryptocurrency to buy self-designed coins, and so the coin design is ‘risk free’.

According to Mikko Sievänen, Head of Digital Development at the Mint of Finland, ‘our goal is to offer coin collectors a taste of digital collectibles with no risks involved. With our technology, Coiniverse users can enjoy the story and beauty of a digital-only coin, without the stress of investments’.

The platform’s 2021 global community survey found that around 25% of under-45 coin collectors were interested in digital collectibles. Coupled with rising interest in digital collectibles generally, the Digital Mint initiative aims to further expand the virtual numismatic market and learn more about the future of the coin market from collectors themselves.