'There is still a key role for cash, even in the age of electronic payments'. So said Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury, Justine Greening, in her keynote address to the Coin Conference to an international audience comprising 190 delegates from 110 organisations and 40 countries.

The Coin Conference, which took place at the end of May, was the first event of its kind to focus on the challenges and issues faced by circulating coins.

Starting off the proceedings were a series of presentations covering the coin landscape. These included one from the Blond Group which juxtaposed data on the continuing rise of cash in circulation with a cautionary note on the potential of new forms of cashless payment.

Another key issue to the industry is the note/coin boundary.  Methodologies for calculating this were presented by Secura Monde International, while the Royal Mint demonstrated the potential for greater efficiencies by moving this boundary to accommodate more high value coins in place of notes.

Enhancing Security

Such higher value coins would need to offer enhanced security. The Royal Dutch Mint provided examples of optically variable and semi-covert features while the Bavarian State Mint detailed flip-flop coins, complex shapes for bimetallic coins, coding, fingerprinting and tri-coloured coins. InkSure covered taggants and Saxonia EuroCoin gave an overview of the security of different coinage materials, as well as introducing HealthGuardCoin. ScanCoin provided a 'wish-list 'of design features and coin parameters to facilitate positive discrimination and maximise throughput.

Next year the EU will introduce  its 'Regulation Concerning Authentication of Euro Coins and Handling of Euro Coins Unfit for Circulation'. The European Anti Fraud Office (OLAF) described how this will work in practice, followed by Deutsche Bundesbank describing the impact the new EU Regulation will have in Germany. 

Another major thread of discussion was public acceptance of coins and, critically, making sure that they are where they are needed.

The UK Payments Council provided a case study on coin circulation in the UK, where the Royal Mint's role is limited, and in complete contrast, the Royal Canadian Mint described the situation in Canada, where it is responsible for coins from cradle to grave.

Coin Recirculation

The Central Bank of the Philippines explained how the country's implementation of a National Coin Recirculation Program is 'flushing' coins out of storage and back into circulation. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) spoke about the recent successful changeover from Netherland Antilles Guilders to dollars, while the VU University of Amsterdam looked at patterns of circulation by tracking the diffusion of euro coins.

In the context of public acceptance, Brian Lang covered the topic of good coins/bad coins in terms of optimum designs, sizes, weights and denominational structure, while the Royal Mint described the Olympic 2012 coin programme with 29 different 50 pence circulating coins.

Reducing Costs

The third major theme of the conference was the reduction of costs and optimisation of coins - whether in production, management or circulation.

Genie Foster, formerly of the Federal Reserve Board, spoke on the costs that the US government is incurring in producing dollar coins that the public does not appear to want, while the US Government Accountability Office spoke about the savings that the government could make if a dollar coin was to replace the dollar bill.

The Desjardins Group and CIRANO gave clear evidence to support the removal of the penny in Canada and Sveriges Riksbank showed how a new series of coins will result in a 70% saving. The Hungarian central bank described the savings from the recent withdrawal of the country's low denomination coins and the replacement of the lowest banknote with a coin, and the Bank of Israel indicated savings from devolving  cash services  to the commercial sector.

A number of vendors - Wincor Nixdorf, G4S, Talaris, Kusters and Amera - also gave presentations that centred on the savings that can be made from managed service solutions, the use of recycling technology, equipment to decommission coins and removing inefficiencies through over-capacity.

The Coin Conference was organised by Currency Publications Ltd, publishers of Currency News.  The 2nd Coin Conference will be held in June 2013.

For a more detailed review of the Coin Conference, click here