2021 was a great year for the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM), despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic, with record sales, profits, and a healthy $78.9 returned to the Canadian government, compared with $20 million the previous year.

After several years of losses, the Mint of Finland has reported a significant increase in sales and return to profit for 2021. Consolidated revenue increased by 45% to €83 million, due largely to a good order backlog at the beginning the year.

The Mint Directors Conference is normally held every two years, providing an opportunity for discussions, information-sharing and debate within and about the industry.

The UK’s Royal Mint has announced plans to build a new plant in Llantrisant, South Wales, to recover gold from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Australia’s lower denomination coins will end up costing more to make than their face value, according to a report by the research outfit Morningstar, thanks to soaring metal prices.

The United States Mint has launched its American Women Quarters™ Program. In a four-year period from 2022 to 2025, the Mint will honour the works and accomplishments of 20 American women by placing their images on new 25 cent coins.

Optimism towards the end of last year that the pandemic was running its course, and that things would start returning to normal, have been thwarted by the emergency of the Omicron variant of COVID, and uncertainty continues around in-person events in 2022.

2022 is a year in which the jubilees of two of the world’s longest reigning monarchs are being celebrated.

The Official Journal of the European Union has published details of the national side of coins issued by members states in 2021.

The Peoples Bank of China has issued 12 commemorative coins for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, which take place 4-20 February.

Currency News™, publishers of Coin & Mint News™ Quarterly, is undertaking a survey of the coin community as part of its development of an-depth report on the circulating coin industry, covering recent developments and trends, current status and future prospects.

The use of surface relief holograms to create striking visual effects on coins is not necessarily a new technology, but one that is a challenge for circulating coins because of durability.

Circulation coins may be facing something of a decline, but the collectors (numismatics) market is booming. A couple of years ago, the market was valued at approximately $17.6 billion annually.

Gräbener Pressensysteme celebrated its 100th year in business last October. The specialist knuckle joint and coin minting press company, based in Netphen-Werthenbach, Germany was entered in the local commercial register in Siegen, Germany in October 1921.

The Colombian Mint (Fábrica de Moneda) has received an award from the Colombian government for technical innovation, in recognition of the development of a new technique that enabled the continuing production of the country’s two highest denomination coins, despite the breakdown of a key piece of machinery just before the pandemic struck that prevented it being repaired.

The Royal Dutch Mint (RDM) is the latest mint to create a not-for-profit coin for charitable purposes, designing an exclusive coin in collaboration with the Smiley Movement. For every coin sold, it will donate a food box to the Foodbank Amsterdam at Christmas.

Experts believe that as much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained within the circuit boards of e-waste, most of which ends up in landfill or is incinerated.

‘The past year has been an extraordinarily challenging one for the world as a whole, and The Royal Mint has been no exception’. These were the opening words in the Chairman’s Report for 2020/21.

Public support for the euro has reached an all-time high, according to the European Commission's latest Eurobarometer survey.

The Mint of Finland, the leading exporter of coins and blanks with 99% of sales coming from overseas customers (up from 93% in 2019), reported near-flat consolidated revenue of €57.2 million in 2020, and an operating loss of €5.1 million (versus €1.4 million the previous year).