News in Brief

New Assay Master for UK

The Royal Mint has announced the appointment of Paul Morgan, Head of Coin Design, to the King’s Assay Master role.

It is the responsibility of the Assay Master to serve the reigning monarch and ensure the integrity of British coinage through testing the quality of the coins and precious metals. This includes upholding the integrity of UK Hallmarking standards by auditing the four UK Hallmarking offices annually.

A Deputy Assay Master has also been announced to support Paul, with Daniel Thomas, Technical Manager, appointed to the role.

Coin Aversion Impacts Inflation Fight in Ghana

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, made the comments about Ghanaians aversion to coins during a visit from members of the country’s National Commission for Civic Education(NCCE) visited last week. Amongst its responsibilities, the NCCE works to educate citizens on their rights and duties, including on currency use – for example, with the 2007 cedi redenomination implementation in 2007.

The Governor stated that the aversion towards the use of coins negatively impacts the central bank’s efforts to fight inflation, as vendors round off prices to avoid using coins. He also emphasised the importance of coins as a more durable and less costly to produce alternative to banknotes.

New Australian Coins Available Later Than Expected

Assistant Treasury Minister, Andrew Leigh, has confirmed that new Australian coins featuring the effigy of King Charles III will enter circulation later than previously expected. He said that the new coins should be available and in circulation by the second half of 2023.

The approval process for a new effigy is somewhat complicated as the new design must be approved first by the Australian government, and then by Buckingham Palace, before being utilised on the dies that then need testing before being used to mint the coins.

Additionally, Andrew noted that a challenge in coin production is that ‘the dies need to be able to last for some 200,000 to 300,000 coins’, and so ‘the image needs not only to be an appropriate likeness but also one that can be printed again and again’.

Royal Mint Makes Use of Medical Waste

The Royal Mint’s luxury jewellery line 886 has already made the news with its recycling of gold found in electronic waste to create new wearable pieces. Now, in collaboration with precious metal experts Betts Metals, the brand is utilising discarded medical X-rays to create silver jewellery.

Betts Metals launched AgAIN Silver last year, a sustainable and traceable metal that is refined from medical X-ray film using a process pioneered by the company.

Somewhere between 2 and 5g of silver can be found in every kilogram of X-ray film, which the company collects from health trusts, in turn generating revenue for UK hospitals.

Each piece of jewellery from the collection is accompanied by a QR code which notes the provenance of the silver used in the piece, providing transparency over the source and journey of the metal from X-ray film to finished product.

Israel Updates Inscriptions

At the end of last year, the Bank of Israel announced that most new coins entering circulation with Hebrew mint year 5782 (2022 in the Gregorian calendar) would feature updated inscriptions. This encompasses four coin denominations; the NIS 10, NIS 5, NIS ½, and 10 agorot.

The word ‘Sheqalim’ has been replaced in English with the word ‘Shekels’ on all coins and the words ‘New Shekel’ have been added to the half-shekel (NIS ½) coin in Arabic. ‘Agorot’ has also been added to the 10 agorot coin in Arabic.

The remaining two denominations, the NIS 1 and NIS 2 coins, featuring the updated inscriptions are set to be distributed in the coming months.

The announcement noted that the inscriptions have been updated in accordance with guidelines from the Academy of the Hebrew Language and the Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel. The change brings the circulating coins in line with the existing inscriptions on banknotes and commemorative coins issued by the Bank of Israel.

All coins currently in circulation will remain legal tender and co-circulate with the updated versions. The obverse of all coins remains the same, with no changes announced.

World’s Smallest Coin Sells Out

As part of its preparations for the transfer from the kuna to the euro, the Croatian Mint created a new world’s smallest coin featuring the world’s smallest city, Hum, with a face value of 1 kuna.

The coin was part of the last commemorative gold coin set issued with the Croatian kuna face value, which was limited to only 199 pieces.

A couple of weeks after the coin set was made available to purchase, it had completely sold out. A fitting end for the last, and smallest, gold commemorative kuna coin produced as Croatia officially adopted the euro on 1 January.

Twitter Explores In-App ‘Coin’ Currency

According to app researchers Jane Manchun Wong and Nima Owji, Twitter is working on an in-app currency feature called ‘Coins’. The feature will allow users to tip creators they support online and give each other ‘Awards’ which can be bought using these coins.

The coins will reportedly be available to purchase using fiat currency through Stripe on the internet. The company is apparently in the process of developing a purchase interface and ‘Coins’ menu item to send users to the purchase screen.

The idea of monetisation using digital coins is not new to social media platforms, with Reddit Coins available to purchase and spend on awards for other users on Reddit. These coins can then be converted into a Premium membership, providing additional benefits on the site.

Video-sharing platform TikTok also features a reward system involving coins, another digital in-app currency paid for using physical currency.

BSP Swaps Cash for E-Money

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has conducted its first ‘Piso Caravan’ - a currency exchange program that replaces unfit money by depositing the equivalent amount to clients’ e-wallets. The aim is to increase the return of soiled or damaged notes and coins and drive the use of digital cash.

‘The BSP Piso Caravan is in line with the central bank’s commitment to preserve the integrity of Philippine currency and promote digital payments to bolster financial inclusion,’ the BSP said in a statement.

The conversion of cash to e-money via the Piso Caravan is part of the BSP’s Paleng QR Ph programme, which was launched last year with the objective of onboarding market vendors and tricycle drivers via the digital platform using QR technology and to promote account ownership using QR Ph.