The Concept of Mint Products - Assignment Example

Q1: What is the concept of mint products Q2: Explain the criteria, which mint will need to take into account when it designs its new coinage. CoinsWe believe that what is a good design for the blind and partially sighted is a good design for everybody. It is not surprising, therefore, that we paid particular care to the design of the eight euro coins, which incorporate the following features: Different coin shapes, colours and edges. The weight of each coin is different - the heavier the coin, the higher the value (except for the 1 coin). The thickness of each coin varies according to value - the thicker the coin, the higher the value (except for the 1 and 2 coins). The values are prominently displayed on the European face of the coins. Familiar national motifs are engraved on the reverse side of each coin. (The European Council Regulation, 1998) Coins will be issued in three different appearances forms: six in the fractional range and two in the Euro range. The coins will increase in size as they increase in value; a practice already used by some of the European countries. All coins in the union in all countries will have the same front face. Countries will customize the backs of the 8 coins with forms of national identity which will make them somewhat a collectable. The designs were agreed upon at the European Council meeting in Amsterdam in June 1997. The majority of countries only have 3 different back desings - one for each of the groups of coinage, that is one back for the 1,2 and 5 cent, one back for the 10, 20, and 50 cent, and one back for the 1 and 2 euro coins. But some differ from this as well as Finland has one back for all the cent coins and then a 2nd back for the 1 euro and a 3rd for the 2 euro coin. The standard is that there is no standard. The backs of the 1 and 2 euro coins will differ in that the brass and nickle parts are reversed - hence the colors change. There are 5 countries, Italy, Austria, Finland, Greece, Monaco and San Marino which use multiple back designs. Finland has differing back designs for its 1 and 2 euro coins, the cent coins follow the norm. Italy, Austria, Greece, and San Marino decided to go all out apparently and they have a different back design for each and every coin. Italy, Austria, Greece, and San Marino thus have 8 differnet coin back designs. In the other extreme, Belgium, Ireland, and Vatican City only have 1 back design for all of its coins. The Netherlands has 2 back designs, while Monoco has 4 back designs. Commemorative coins of various other denominations, not intended for circulation, have been issued. They are legal tender only in the nation which issued them. In addition, members have from time to time replaced the national side of the two euro coin with a commemorative design Q3: How might the concept of simultaneous design be applied in the design of coinage The currency sign The official construction of the euro sign, which was specified to be printed in PMS Yellow on a PMS Reflex Blue background A special euro currency sign () was designed after a public survey had narrowed the original ten proposals down to two. The European Commission then chose the final design. The eventual winner was a design created by the Belgian Alain Billiet. The official story of the design history of the euro sign is disputed by Arthur Eisenmenger, a former chief graphic designer for the EEC, who claims to have created it as a generic symbol of Europe. The glyph is (according to the European Commission) "a combination of the Greek epsilon, as a sign of the weight of European civilization; an E for Europe; and the parallel lines crossing through standing for the stability of the euro". The European Commission also specified a euro logo with exact proportions and foreground/background colour tones.[5] Although some font designers simply copied the exact shape of this logo as the euro sign in their fonts, most designed their own variants, often based upon the capital letter C in the respective font so that currency signs have the same width as Arabic numerals.[6] Placement of the currency sign varies from nation to nation. There are no official standards on where to place the euro symbol.[7] Generally, people in the euro countries have kept the placement of their former currencies.[citation needed] Another advantage to the final chosen symbol is that it is easily created on a typewriter, by typing a capital 'C', backspacing and overstriking it with the equal ('=') sign. (Wikipedia, 2007) Her most important artistic contribution is the concept of "simultaneous" design. This includes the concept of Orphism - that one design when placed next to another affects both; this is similar to the theory of colors (e.g., Georges Seurat's pointillisme). Sonia Delaunay, This page was last modified 09:20, 2 April 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Delaunay there are pattern coins and concept coins out there in circulation that depict what such coins might look like when issued. Those coins are not legal tender, of course, and are just speculation. One frequenly sees that such concept coins of countries depict nationality specific obverse (front) sides of the coins in addition to reverse (back) sides. Since the obverse (front) of ALL Euro coins are the same, it goes without saying that those depicted obverse version will not come to pass. (The European Council Regulation, 1998) Q4: Assuming that the UK government opted to join the Euro, outline the impact t his would have on the Royal Mint. b) Discuss the Royal Mint strategy to this development. Slack N et al, Operations Management (Third Edition), 2001, FT/Pitman, London. ISBN 0-64657-5 Lysias, Britain makes euros out of Sidmar steel, http://www.lysias.be/Texts/ForPrint/EN_RoyalMintPrint.htm The Royal Mint should craft a careful plan in order to produce the Euro coins so that it can have least effect on the taxpayer's money. A non serious and nave decision regarding the future strategy can cost 220 people their jobs because the Royal Mint do not possess the correct machinery to produce the coins to meet standards required for the currency. The Royal Mint should first increase its capability to meet the tighter technical tolerances specified in the Euro contracts. Inability to quickly respond to the market change can result in shape of fewer contracts for production of Euro blanks. Euro coins will be more difficult to produce due to the stricter levels specified in the contracts. If the Royal Mint will be slower than its competitors in achieving the technical tolerance levels specified in the contracts for production of Euro blanks it will loose its market. It will also need to restructure its operation in order to respond to the changing market circumstances. (Hencke, 2003) The Royal Mint is an efficient, modern busy factory, but like most factories it contains some danger. There are numerous fork lift trucks transporting tons of metal in various forms, loading them into overhead hoppers, and moving them between processes. Although the factory appears well-designed, and much of the machinery features safety protection barriers, it would clearly be undesirable on safety grounds, to have large numbers of visitors on the premises We produce all of the British coins and we sell our surplus capacity throughout the world. Although most countries can rely on domestic mints, many of them still call for tenders. We have secured approximately 50% of the available export market, which makes us probably the world's largest producer of coinage.' The eleven European countries that are to convert to the Euro in 2002 are faced with the job of producing sufficient coins. Not all these countries can make their own blanks. 'And that's where we come in,' says Martin Cragg. 'The Royal Mint has considerable capacity, so we made a competitive offer and secured the order.' Historically, coins were made of homogeneous materials, such as copper and bronze, but in recent years most countries have switched over to plated steel to reduce costs. 'The wear characteristics and the durability of these copper or nickel plated coins is excellent,' says Anthony Swann, the Mint's Purchasing Manager - Metals. 'We are now supplying copper plated steel blanks to some of the countries who have joined the first wave of entrance. We are not actually striking the coins. The tails are identical for all the participating countries, but the heads will carry a national design, so it is best if each country strikes its own coins.' On the launch date the first wave countries will need 75,000 tons of one, two and five cent coins, which works out to 25 billion coins. 'That is just a low estimate,' Anthony Swann continues. 'They will probably need 100,000 tons or 30 billion coins. If the UK were to join, approximately 9 billion more coins would be needed of the three bottom denominations. The Royal Mint has a copper plate capacity of about 15.000 tons a year. We would need 20 to 30 months to get ready. That should give you some idea of the huge task Europe is facing. Heads and tails The Royal Mint buys hot rolled steel coils, which are slit at the BCD Steels premises in Kingswinford. 'The pre-gauge is 3 mm and we cold roll it to the required gauge, which is 1.3 or 1.4 mm, depending on the denomination,' explains Manufacturing Manager, Phil Carpenter. 'We could of course buy steel of the required gauge, but we roll it ourselves just to reduce costs. After the coils have been cold rolled on site, we punch blanks out of the narrow strip at high speed. We have an average yield of about 70%, which means we need 14 to 15 tons of steel to produce 10 tons of coins. The coins then have to be annealed and rimmed. The annealing makes the blanks sufficiently soft to strike them and to let the design stand out nicely. They are immersed in a copper cyanide solution and are plated by means of electrolysis.' It all seems a fairly standard production process, but appearances are indeed deceiving. 'The surface of the steel we use is very important,' says Anthony Swann. 'Both sides of each blank should shine like a mirror. The blanks that are used in the automotive industry only need to have one immaculate surface. With us it is never heads or tails. Both sides of the coins are equally important and that is what brought us to Sidmar. They can provide a very high-quality finish, even for material from their standard production line.' Strategic option 'We did not want to depend on a too limited number of suppliers,' adds Martin Cragg. 'Demand is likely to grow in the following years, so we decided it was time to develop our supplier base, to build more safety into our supply chain. We compared a number of suppliers and put them to the test, in accordance with the rules for procurement of the European Union. Sidmar was pretty successful and we now feel very comfortable with each other.' References Hencke, D., (2003). Euro blunder cost Royal Mint 37m, Thursday April 17, 2003, The Guardian, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/euro/story/0,11306,938307,00.html The European Council Regulation, (1998). The Euro, May 3, 1998, available from http://www.smailus.com/thomas/euro/ Wikipedia, (2007). Euro, This page was last modified 14:43, 2 April 2007, available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro Read More