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Around the World in 20 Mints
 | By Scott Tappa, World Coin News
February 17, 2009 |
The Krause Publications delegation at the World Money Fair in Berlin - Dave Harper, Tom Michael, Lisa Bellavin and myself - was fortunate to spend quality time in individual meetings with mints and national banks representing five continents. The meetings gave us an opportunity to go in-depth on new coin technologies, trends and market conditions with some of the most innovative and well-respected mints around.
The Perth Mint, which wowed invited guests with a reception focused on aboriginal art and music, was excited to unveil its Dreaming Series, part of its successful Discover Australia series. CEO Ed Harbuz, sales and marketing manager Ron Currie, and wholesale manager Neil Vance stressed how the work of indigenous designer Darryl Bellotti evoked Australia's distinctive nature.
Farit Tuganbayev and Aizhan Zhanuzakova of the Kazakhstan Mint discussed their plans to issue coins in conjunction with two 2010 athletic competitions, the Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Heimo Steriti and Peter Frei of Coin Invest Trust showed us their latest cutting-edge designs, including a coin with embedded stained glass, a Braille coin, an Easter commemorative in which an egg hatches when the latent image on the coin is pressed between two hands and one that smells like coconut when rubbed.
Vice President of Marketing and Communications Diane Plouffe Reardon graciously took time from her busy schedule to discuss the Royal Canadian Mint's Olympic line, regional marketing efforts and new Web site. Felicity Mullens and Ben Harvey of the Royal Australian Mint were excited about the impending upgrade to their Canberra facilities, which will be completed in time for the 2010 Mint Directors Conference and also serve as a tourist destination. & 2009 is the millennia anniversary of the first mention of Lithuania's name, according to Leonida Petretyte and
Jonas Valatka of the Lithuanian Mint, who along with Audrone Gruodyte of Bank of Lithuania filled us in on their partnerships, including producing a Coin of the Year winner from Belarus.
Hans Denkov and Torben Nielsen of the Royal Danish Mint had two pieces of interesting news: a program to sell nearly 100-year-old uncirculated gold coins from the vault of Denmark's central bank, and production of bank notes for Greenland.
Like the U.S. state quarter program, the Prefecture Series from the Japan Mint has been well-received thus far, according to Nayuko Kume. Christophe Beaux, president and director general of Monnaie de Paris, told us of the challenges his firm faces operating in a country where philatelists outnumber numismatists by a roughly 10-to-1 margin. One solution: selling coins through French post offices.
One of our favorite coins from the show belonged to the Protea Series from the South African Mint, which commemorates that country's national anthem. The song combines two anthems and five languages, and its coin depicts the two composers of the national anthem interwoven and joined by musical notes of the first stanza of each of the combined anthems. We spoke about the coin with Natanya van Niekirk, who in addition to being the mint's deputy general manager is the coin's designer.
Yun-Sun Ji and Sung-Hyun Kim of Korea Minting & Security Printing Corporation told us about their Traditional Folk Game Series and also discussed various aspects of selling their coins into the U.S. market. The Czech Mint releases four or five silver commemorative coins in a typical year and will sell two gold commemoratives this year, said Zdenek Vojtech. The Austrian Mint will be celebrating the history of medicine in that country, according to Kerry Tattersall.
The Bank of Latvia this year will distribute a coin in which the winning design was created by a 6-year-old, said Maruta Brukle, head of the bank's coin division. Nancy Cheung and Chris Kirkness of the New Zealand Mint stressed the importance of their company's innovative packaging. As an example, the mint's upcoming commemorative series focused on airships will be packaged in an actual replica airship. Mincovna Kremnica of Slovakia generated much interest in their new circulating coins, as Slovakia is the latest nation to adopt the euro, said Roman Pulis.
The Hungarian Mint won the People's Choice Coin of the Year for the second straight year for a castle-themed entry, but Terez Horvath also showed us a Rubik's Cube-themed coin - the inventor hails from Hungary. The Israel Coins & Medals Corporation has a new operating structure, according to Rivka Toledano, as last May the Israeli government sold its shares to a private firm. The arrangement has yielded an expanded customer list. Antonio Verdasca said the Portuguese State Mint will be releasing a coin celebrating an upcoming athletic event involving all Portuguese-speaking nations.
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