With the awards ceremony scheduled to take place at the Currency Conference in Mexico City (15-16 May), the finalists for the 2023 Excellence in Currency Awards have now been announced.

Royal United Mint, the parent company of the Royal Dutch Mint and the Belgian Mauquoy Token Company, has acquired Osborne Coinage Co, based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the oldest private mint in the US.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is preparing to launch a new pilot project using QR code-based Coin Vending Machines in order to improve coin distribution in the country.

Back by popular demand, the latest edition of The Directory of Currency & Technology Suppliers is now being compiled. This sought-after directory is an essential resource for central banks and issuers, printers and mints, and everyone in the cash cycle.

To mark what would have been the 70th anniversary of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation this year, the Pacific territory of Tokelau has issued three new commemorative coins.

Currency Research will be holding the inaugural Silk Road Cash & Payments Conference in Almaty from 27-29 March.

A new event will be taking place later this year, namely the International Money Exposition, which is scheduled to take place between 26-29 October 2023 at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Last month, the ECB released its 2022 banknote counterfeit figures. Whereas the ECB publishes counterfeit banknotes statistics promptly one month after the year end, the figures for euro coin counterfeits are less timely.

Counterfeiting is nothing new – indeed it has often been called the world’s second oldest profession. Counterfeiting of money has been going on ever since the invention of physical money in around the 6th century BC.

Three years to the day after first joining the South African Mint as its Managing Director, Honey Mamabolo sat down with Coin & Mint News™ to discuss the last few years as a leader and overcoming the challenges caused by the pandemic, the upcoming refreshed coin series, and the importance of coin in South Africa.

The Royal Australian Mint (RAM) has been selected as the winner of a Worldstar Packaging Award for its new sustainable Standard Proof Coin Box.

The official launch of the International Mint Industry Association (IMIA) took place at the World Money Fair in Berlin. The IMIA has been established to promote cash and coin access and acceptance, with six mints as founding members.

The Technical Forum returned as a live event this year when the World Money Fair took place for the 50th time from 3-5 February in Berlin.

The National Bank of Ukraine’s ‘30th Anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence’ 5 hryvnia silver coin has been voted the overall winner in the Coin of the Year (COTY) awards, run by American numismatic publisher Krause.

In a fascinating presentation at the Coin Conference In Amsterdam last October, Anikó Bódi-Schubert of Magyar Nemzeti Bank told delegates about an ambitious programme that has brought coin collecting into the digital age.

The lack of facilities to deposit coins presents a significant barrier to an efficient cash cycle. So, it was good to hear of a new initiative from the National Bank of Poland, namely a coin deposit solution, presented at the Coin Conference.

On 1 January 2023, and following a two-year break due to COVID, the Royal Australian Mint held its annual First Coin of the Year event at its facility in Canberra.

As 2023 begins, the US Mint has unveiled several coin designs and release schedules for the year and announced its final 2022 production figures.

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. From there, another panel of international judges review the nominees and select the category winners.

In this article, Nicola Sudan, Regional Director of Reconnaissance International, provides a viewpoint on the continuing usefulness of coins in South Africa.