The Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards have been held every year since 1984, with a panel of judges nominating ten coins in each of the ten award categories. The winners of the most recent edition of the annual COTY Awards were announced at the 2025 World’s Fair of Money®, held in Oklahoma City mid-August.

During the World’s Fair of Money, MKS PAMP Group announced the return of the Engelhard brand to the market with a new generation of faithfully recreated precious metals products. The United States Mint also unveiled a new release in line with the event, its first laser-engraved coin.

The RCM has recently reported that it remains on track to achieve the goal of a carbon-neutral Circulation Business – including the Winnipeg facility – by 2030, with its Decarbonization Roadmap in place to improve the way that the Mint operates both of its facilities. Work is underway to achieve a carbon net-zero operation by 2050.

Updating the effigy featured on circulating coinage is common when a change of monarch occurs, such as in the case of the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II and ascension of King Charles III to the throne, or the abdication of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II to pass the title on to her son, King Frederik X. This is also the case with the Vatican – the smallest sovereign state in the world located within Rome.

Monnaie de Paris has announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved the launch of a new bullion project, with the metal-investment offer providing both French and international collectors with the ability to acquire coins sold for their weight in fine gold.

According to the European Central Bank, gold has overtaken the euro to become the second largest global reserve asset after the US dollar. The ECB’s most recent annual report on the international role of the euro notes that central bank gold demand remained at record highs in 2024, accounting for more than 20% of global demand – in contrast to around one-tenth on average in the 2010s.

The Central Bank of Costa Rica, as part of its mandate to keep businesses and the public informed, published the schedule for the entry and exit of coins to and from circulation for the year on in February. The new colón coin series shows different designs that allows each denomination to be readily identified and distinguished from the old series by the public.

The Royal Mint has unveiled a ground-breaking addition to its bullion portfolio with the launch of the new secure Britannia bullion bar. Security features previously exclusive to its world-renowned coins have been rolled out into its gold bar range for the first time.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan has launched a new digital coin, backed by unallocated and certified physical gold. Those interested can purchase, and then sell, the digital gold coin via a mobile application called ‘Tabys’. Investors are also able to gift coins to another investor using the app.

The latest figures from Eesti Pank on cash issuance detailed a fall in the number of coins issued in the first quarter of 2025. Approximately 1.5 million coins with a total value of €1.6 million were issued, with the most common being the €2 coin – which comprised half of the total number of coins issued into circulation.

The World Money Fair is the world’s largest coin fair. This year’s event, held 30 January to 1 February, attracted more numismatics enthusiasts than ever before – with over 13,600 attendees and more than 300 exhibitors from 50 countries present. WMF Director, Goetz-Ulf-Jungmichel, commented that the event ‘shows that our industry is not only preserving history, but actively shaping the future’.

As CMN went to press, the US Treasury officially confirmed the end of penny production, following the Trump administration’s order to cease minting the coins earlier this year. The Department will stop issuing new pennies into circulation by early next year, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The 32nd Mint Directors Conference took place from 27-29 April in Cape Town, South Africa. The event, co-hosted by the South African Mint Company, focused on exploring the fusion of traditional minting practices with modern technological advancements.

Coin & Mint News™ continues our ‘Remarkable New Issues’ segment, in partnership with CoinsWeekly, by highlighting three new creative collectible issues – including an unusual shape, multi-faceted design, and colourful imagery.

ABC Refinery has announced its adoption of the ProvCheck app, allowing customers to authenticate the provenance of its ABC Bullion gold bars. Currently compatible with numbered 1kg ABC Bullion gold bars, the app enables customers to scan their bars and unlock the mine-to-market history of the product, including the gold’s origin and attributable carbon emissions.

The 32nd Mint Directors Conference (MDC) was held last week in Cape Town, South Africa. The event hosts the MDC Coin Awards, sponsored by MingFeng Packaging, which this year took place last night during the MDC Gala Dinner at Cape Point Vineyards.

Coin & Mint News™ continues its ‘Remarkable New Issues’ segment, in partnership with CoinsWeekly, by highlighting three new collectible issues with dynamic designs – and in the case of Austria, a colourful centrepiece.

The Royal Mint has made an equity investment in Canadian cleantech company Excir, its partner for precious metals recovery.

Gold has been viewed as a safe-haven asset for centuries, a role that is unlikely to change anytime soon. By its very nature, the precious metal asset holds store of value and is a hedge against volatility as a so-called safe and stable investment, in addition to providing protection against inflation. The current weakening of the US dollar only reinforces this.

Spain is reportedly the latest country considering cash rounding, after a proposal has been tabled to eliminate the one and two cent coins. The news closely follows the German National Cash Forum’s cash rounding advocacy last month, which asked the country’s Federal Ministry of Finance to ‘advocate for...a binding statutory rounding rule in Germany’.