News in Brief

New Colombian Coin Supply Contract

The Banco de la República (Colombia) and the Mint of Finland have signed a new contract for the production and supply of Colombian coins, which includes three denominations – $50, $200 and $500 Colombian pesos.

The contractual relationship between the two entities began in 2017, with this contract including the minting of the three denominations, totalling 370.5 million pieces, during 2023-24.

Uganda Considers Replacing 1,000 Shilling Banknote with Coins

The Bank of Uganda is considering the phasing out of the 1,000 shilling banknote. The note is heavily used for transactions, but soiling and frequent replacement has pushed up the replacement costs. According to the Bank of Uganda, printing and circulation costs have risen by 16.5% recently.

The decision on whether or not to discontinue the note will be taken after a cost-benefit analysis has been carried out.

If it is dropped, then Uganda already has a circulating commemorative coin of the same value, which was introduced in 2012.

Isle of Man Consults on Coins

The government of the Isle of Man (IOM) – a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland, with a population of 84,000 – has recently closed a consultation on the future of the island’s 1p, 2p and 5p coins.

The purchasing power of the coins has diminished over time, leading to a fall in their use. If they are abolished, an island-wide rounding system would see bills rounded up or down to the nearest 10p. Cashless transactions would not be affected.

IOM coinage is denominated in Manx pounds. Both circulation and commemorative coins were minted by Pobjoy Mint up until 2016, and subsequently by the Tower Mint, although no 1p and 2p coins have been produced for seven years. They are similar to UK coins, but are not legal tender in the UK, whereas UK coins are legal tender on the island.

The Treasury will now publish a summary of the responses to the consultation, and in light of the views expressed will consider whether or not to proceed with proposals to withdraw the three lowest denomination coins, or just the 1p and 2p coins.

Bulgaria Agrees on Euro Coins

Bulgaria is delaying its entry to the eurozone, and is now likely to adopt the single currency in January 2025, as opposed to 2024 as originally planned.

In the meantime, however, the Bulgarian National Bank has agreed on the design principles of the country’s new euro coins, which will contain the same images as the existing stotinka and lev coins to ensure continuity and facilitate recognition of the new currency. The Madara Rider medieval rock relief carving features on the 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 stotinka coins, St John of Rila on the 1 lev and Paisius of Hilendar on the 2 lev – as they will on the corresponding euro coins.

On the national side, the word ‘Bulgaria’ will be written in Cyrillic, as will the word euro (for the 1 and 2 euro coins) and stotinka for the euro cent coins.

The designs will be submitted to the Coordination Council which has been set up to prepare Bulgaria for euro area membership. After their final approval, they will be presented to the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the member states of the eurozone.

Last December, Bulgaria signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission and the Eurogroup president, which paves the way for the country to start minting its own euro coins once it receives approval for eurozone membership from the European Council.

Royal Mint Launches Local Energy Centre

To further advance its goal of becoming net zero by 2050, The Royal Mint (TRM) has launched the Local Energy Centre (LEC) at its manufacturing site in Llantrisant, Wales.

Working in conjunction with wind and solar energy project developer Infinite Renewables – which it has previously worked with on launching ‘Delilah’, the Mint’s daffodil-inspired wind turbine, in 2018 – TRM has added a 4,056 panel solar farm, additional wind turbine, hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant, and a dual chemistry battery energy storage system, to form its new LEC.

TRM aims to generate 70% of the power it uses on-site via its LEC, to reduce its reliance on the national grid and provide a greener, dependable source of electricity generation. According to the Mint, the LEC has the potential to produce 17 gigawatt hours of electricity per annum, which is the equivalent of the average annual energy consumption of approximately 5,862 UK households.

Philippines Coin Deposit Machines Return Millions

Following the launch of the first batch of coin deposit machines (CoDMs) last month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has announced that it was able to return around P12.5 million (approximately £177,430) worth of coins to circulation through the machines.

One of the primary goals behind the introductions of the CoDMs is to promote efficient coin recirculation in the country (see here), with the central bank aiming to deploy 15 more units in due course as part of its initial rollout of 25 machines.

RCM Ranked Again as Best Corporate Citizen

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has once again ranked among sustainable business magazine Corporate Knights’ 2023 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada.

Corporate Knights has been tracing public and private companies as well as Crown corporations with more than $1 billion in revenues since 2002. The ranking is based on 24 quantitative key performance indicators relating to resource management, employee management, financial management, clean revenue, clean investment and supplier performance.

This is the third year in a row that the RCM has achieved this accolade. It was ranked 25 this year out of the 50 organisations. Its ranking is attributed to top-quartile scores on the management of energy consumption and carbon emissions, sustainable revenue, as well as gender and racial diversity on its leadership team and board positions.

Coinverse Celebrates 100,000 Users

Coiniverse – the app for trading and collecting coins – has announced that it has reached a significant milestone with 100,000 registered users since its launch in 2021.

‘This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support and engagement from our dedicated community of collectors like you. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for choosing Coiniverse as your go-to tool and community for coin collecting’, it said.

Coinverse was launched by the Mint of Finland two years ago as a digital platform for coin collectors. In addition to the Finnish Mint, those of France, South Africa, Spain, Lithuania, Switzerland, Germany and Italy have all joined.