News in Brief

TRM Partners with Team Wales

The Royal Mint Experience has been announced as an official partner of Team Wales – the Welsh sporting body – introducing a new four-year partnership between the two organisations.

The partnership involves TRM Experience – the visitor centre situated at the Mint in Llantrisant, Wales – becoming the official location for a selection of events, including the Commonwealth Games homecoming medal presentation, as well as an official retailer for Team Wales merchandise.

The Royal Mint will also become the official producer of the commemorative Team Wales Commonwealth and Youth Games homecoming medallions, with the latter taking place earlier this month in Trinidad and Tobago.

This is not the first time that TRM has worked with Welsh sporting organisations, having produced participation medals for Team Wales athletes and providing support staff at previous Commonwealth Games.

RAM and Australian Strike Force Unravel Coin Scam

In June 2023, detectives from the New South Wales State Crime Command’s Organised Crime Squad established Strike Force Gidding to investigate a syndicate allegedly importing packages of mutilated Australian $1 and $2 coins. The packages were consistent with being fraudulently obtained.

The detectives were assisted by the Australian Border Force, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), and the Royal Australian Mint during their investigations.

Border Force officers analysed several consignments arriving in Sydney, described as packages of belt buckles, finding parcels containing damaged Australian coins instead. Further packages were later seized, also containing damaged coins.

Two people have since been charged following the investigation – with both charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime.

It will be alleged in court that the syndicate laundered the coins through smart ATMs throughout Sydney and deposited sums of money into several bank accounts before the proceeds were sent offshore.

It’s estimated the syndicate has fraudulently obtained more than $1 million through the scheme since August 2022.

Organised Crime Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Peter Faux said that they ‘do not believe the coins are counterfeit, but they are not legal tender. We will continue to work with our partners, including the Royal Australian Mint, to determine the extent of this syndicate’s reach.’ 

The Case of Germany’s Ancient Celtic Coin Heist

Last November, hundreds of gold coins were taken from a museum in Bavaria, Germany, during a nine-minute heist. The hoard of coins, many of which dated from around 1st century BCE, is worth around €1.6 million.

The coins were unearthed by archaeologists in 1999 and considered the biggest discovery of Celtic gold in the 20th century, significant for both the hoard size – 483 coins in total – and for where they were found, near the small Bavarian town of Manching.

German authorities have now arrested four suspects, after finding trace DNA on an item at the scene of the crime. Authorities also found 18 nuggets of gold with the same composition as the coins in the possession of one of the men.

Around 70 coins from the hoard are believed to have been ‘lost irretrievably in their cultural and historical significance’, according to Bavaria’s state culture minister Markus Blume. The authorities remain hopeful that the rest of the coin hoard will be found intact.

US Mint Production Exceeds 7.4 Billion Coins

According to the US Mint’s manufacturing figures, production of circulation coins in the first half of 2023 exceeded 7.4 billion – at a total of 7,407,840,000 coins. The production figure is 3% lower than that of the same period last year.

Estimated annual mintage for the 2023 would exceed 14.8 billion coins if the current pace of production were to continue through the end of the year. This compares to a production total of 13.6 billion coins for circulation last year.

Estonia’s Coins in Circulation Up By 55%

According to Eesti Pank, Estonia’s central bank, the volume of coins in circulation in the country grew by 55% between the first and second quarter of 2023. 7.3 million coins with a total value of €3.1 million were issued during the second quarter.

Approximately half of all coins issued were one and two cent coins, with the proportions of each coin issued as follows:

Circulation coins with a total value of €1.5 million were returned to Eesti Pank in the second quarter, 300,000 of which were one and two cent coins. The returned coin figure is 42% lower than the first quarter of 2023.

The bank also continues to exchange Estonian kroons in banknotes and coins for euros. 175 cash exchange transactions with kroons took place during the period, at a value of €29,700. An estimated 319.7 million coins – phased out as legal tender in 2011 – have not been returned from circulation, worth €6.7 million.

Danmarks Nationalbank to Close Coin Webshop

Danmarks Nationalbank has decided to close the Royal Danish Mint’s webshop at the end of the year, with the decision taken due to declining sales figures and higher coin production costs for the webshop.

It noted that less cash use in society means less need to produce new coins for general circulation, and so it is ‘proportionately more expensive to produce new coins if their sole purpose is to support sales in the webshop’. Small procurements of new coins result in a higher unit price, in addition to handling and transport of the coins, which has also become more expensive per coin for small-scale deliveries.

Production of commemorative coins in connection with special occasions in the Royal Family, such as the sovereign’s round birthdays and jubilees, is planned to continue.