Earlier this month, IACA held a webinar titled ‘Cash Visibility: How the Royal Canadian Mint Manages Canada’s Circulation Coins in Real-Time’, in which the Royal Canadian Mint detailed their strategies and systems for managing cash visibility for coin in Canada.

Earlier this year, the Belgian Treasury launched a #spendyourchange campaign encouraging citizens to use their loose change, following warnings from several key trade federations in Belgium of an artificial coin shortage.

Uganda has become the latest African nation to look to gold as support for its currency, as the Bank of Uganda initiates a Domestic Gold Purchase Program with the objectives of building the country’s foreign reserves and minimising risks on reserves investments.

Beside cashless payments, coins are still a part of modern life. Minting, circulating and recirculating of coins remains a great responsibility for mints and central banks. Depending on the quality of the coin, the lifespan of hard cash can be 10 years or more.

The Coin Workshop started this year’s Banknote Conference – which took place in Fort Worth, Texas from 13-16 May – with a mix of data, storytelling, and discussion.

The Central Bank of Kosovo has released details of its efforts to fight counterfeit currency, noting that it had successfully coordinated inter-institutional meetings to design and implement effective strategies to combat the circulation of counterfeit coins, especially €2 coins.

The Bank of Estonia (Eesti Pank) has launched a coin collection campaign in collaboration with Estonian-based postal service and logistics company Omniva. The campaign aims to collect one million coins through a pilot programme whereby people can exchange their accumulated coins in selected post offices.

Established in 2020 to support national law enforcement authorities in their efforts to fight financial and economic crimes and aid in international cooperation and information exchange, Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) has just released its first threat assessment on the matter.

The International Mint Industry Association (IMIA) has issued a position paper on the European Commission’s (EC) draft regulations on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins.

At the Coin Conference in Amsterdam last October, Beatriz Guia of Banco de España provided an overview of Spain’s coin circulation and management. This article is based on that presentation, with an update following the publication of the BdE’s annual report this summer.