Welcome to this, the inaugural issue of Coin & Mint News™ from the publishers of Currency News™ and Cash & Payment News™ and the only news source dedicated specifically to circulating coins, the minting industry and the numismatic community.
Over the past several years, we have been keeping the coin and minting community abreast of developments through Mint News Quarterly and then its successor, Coin & Mint News Quarterly.
But it has become apparent that a quarterly publication isn’t enough to keep pace with the developments in coins, and in the cash cycle and wider payments eco-system in which they operate.
In that cash cycle, circulating coins have traditionally been viewed as the part where ‘not much happens’. But in reality, plenty happens. The pace of development and innovation in the minting industry, and the issues and challenges that coins face, are such that the community merits its own dedicated news space on a monthly basis.
After all, as one pundit once stated – without coins there can be no cash. Circulating coins play a key societal role in facilitating transactions, and comprise an intrinsic component of treasury department and central bank cash strategies. But they face formidable challenges, notably in the current circumstances in terms of rising costs, hoarding, inefficiencies in circulation, the need to engender a sustainable production and distribution environment, and the apparent inexorable rise of alternative forms of payment.
The success of cash in going forward will be dependent on availability and efficiency, whilst retaining those unique properties – privacy, resilience and inclusion – that the alternatives simply cannot offer. And coins have a key role to play.
But it’s not just about the role of circulating coins in the cash cycle. Coins provide connections to the public that go beyond their transactional use, with the collectors market an important source of revenue for mints and issuers as well as a means of engaging consumers and keeping coins ‘alive’ in way that other cash products (ie. banknotes) simply don’t.
Added to that is the investment value of coins – not the circulating variety, but the bullion coins that provide a safe haven and portable storage of wealth, particularly in times of crisis and uncertainty, of which we have plenty these days.
The attributes of coins – for transactions, for investment and, at the end of the day, for sheer enjoyment – will be the themes underpinning Coin & Mint News as we roll it out monthly.
As a sister publication to Currency News and Cash & Payment News, Coin & Mint News will provide information and analysis on coin design and specification, production and handling technologies, recirculation and recycling, market and issuance trends, industry news, sustainability, machine detection and security, counterfeiting and the use of coins in the cash cycle, as well as public engagement and the large and growing market for commemorative and circulating commemorative coins.
Coin & Mint News will be particularly relevant to central banks and finance ministries responsible for coin issue, mints, and suppliers of materials and equipment for the design, production and distribution of coins, although in reality it will provide useful reading for anyone involved in the cash cycle.
As with its two sister publications, Coin & Mint News is supported by an e-publishing platform where articles and archives can be accessed, along with the online Currencies of the World database (which includes coins as well as banknotes), and a weekly news service.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue and encourage you to subscribe to future issues.
We also welcome your articles, thoughts and ideas for future content and direction, along with editorial contributions to ensure that Coin & Mint News is relevant, informative and, above, all reflects the interests, concerns, challenges and successes of coins and the minting community.
