http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatara A very interesting lizard-like animal (not a true lizard; it's equally related to both modern lizards and modern snakes). The order of repitles they're in, Sphenodontia, thrived in great numbers about 200 million years ago, but today there's only two living species left, both endemic to New Zealand (and both endangered... rats introduced by sailors nearly caused their extinction). Not true dinosaurs, but to see one is to see an animal not much different than what they looked like in the Triassic. It was featured on the reverse of the New Zealand 5 cent piece (yep this thread did have something to do with coins lol.) However the coin was discontinued... 2006 was the last year New Zealand minted 5 cent pieces. I'm bidding on a New Zealand proof set on eBay to get a good example of one. Great coin featuring an amazing animal. This is the kind of thing that gets me excited about world coins from time to time... this is a gem from the same country that minted King Kong coins lol... What the coin looks like: http://www.anz.com/nz/promo/PlunketFiveS/Fivecentfacts.asp
There is a copper-plated steel 10c. medal-coin & a silver Proof $5 medal-coin that are coming out depicting the Tuatara.The 10c. medal-coin will be sold for an issue price of NZ$9.90,which to me,is way too excessive for my liking. Aidan.
I tend to avoid most world commemoratives, in preference for normal circulating coinage, but I keep an open mind if I find anything well-designed and/or interesting. The silver one I'd possibly consider. Don't suppose New Zealand would ever consider transferring the tuatara to any of the coins they still produce would they? Anyway at the very least will try to get a NZ proof set. No reason to prefer one year over any other, but am currently bidding on a 1976 one (year I was born).
Troodon,the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has got its head stuck in the sand as far as commemorative coinage goes.There has been calls for years from the numismatic community over here for the R.B.N.Z. to start issuing circulating commemorative coins that can be found in change,but the R.B.N.Z. has given us the fingers,as it were. I don't think we will see any changes to the reverse designs of the circulation coins in the near future,if ever. Like you,I was also born in 1976 as well. Aidan.
Well it's a general complaint I have about all mints, including the US, lol... they need to do more to keep the circulating coinage interesting if they hope to keep coin collectors interested in their modern circulating coinage. I like what the US and Canada have at least attempted in that regard, with things like the state quarters, president dollars, the millenium series in Canada, etc. I basically collect almost all coins by type, US and world, so I look out for interesting designs more than anything else, and if they keep the same design for too long I'll probably only get one of the type and that's it. Looked at the New Zealand's Mint's online site ( http://www.nzmint.com/nzmint.mv )... a lot of it just looks like junk to me, especially colored coins, which I despise, but there is some nice stuff there. (Well I'm not a big fan of the term "medal-coin" lol, I'd have to say that applies to a lot of stuff here if I ever decided to use it.) The tuatara coin does look nice, if a little steep (About $60 US, with shipping to US comes to about $80 US. Pretty high shipping, but within reason for travelling several thousand miles I guess. For reference, NZ $1 = aprox US $0.75.). Will pick it up anyway though, be a nice companion to the proof set I'm getting.
Troodon,the New Zealand Mint is a private company,just like the Pubjoy Mint & the Franklin Mint are.They've never struck coins for New Zealand,nor are they ever likely to.The mints that we currently use are the Royal Mint,Wales,the Royal Australian Mint,Canberra,& the Royal Canadian Mint,Winnipeg. Aidan.
This is a common misconception. You see, mints have absolutely no desire whatsoever to keep collectors interested in circulating coinage. In fact, they go out of their way to discourage it. And at times have gone to great lengths and expense to do so.
Right, but as far as I can tell, one cannot order coins directly from the RBNZ. So I guess it does not matter much whether he picks the New Zealand Mint or NZ Post, since they both charge the same for that Tuatara Annual Coin ... Christian
On the other hand, if its circulation coins are fairly dull, who would buy, say, annual sets with the same dull pieces? And I also believe that, if a country issues nice or even very attractive "everyday" coins, more people in that country might be interested in collecting modern domestic commemoratives ... Christian
Seems logical though for sake of collecting more seignorage (sp?) they'd want to everything possible to encourage coin collecting. Mints of course never have a problem with people buying bullion, commemoratives, and other NCLT. However there are times when they try to discourage coin collecting of regular circulation issues because their bigger concern is that collecting could cause a coin shortage (1964 in the US is a good example of this; though collecters weren't really solely, or even primarily, at fault for the hoarding of silver coinage, the Mint was quick to blame them at the time). Perhaps New Zealand is thinking the same thing... I'm sure they have no problem with licensing a mint to make commemoratives and bullion for people to buy, but would rather not deal with too many people collecting their circulating coinage lest they have problems keeping enough coinage in circulation. Though I think that's a somewhat unfounded fear, as coin collecters could hardly hope to make a dent in what they collect compared to the billions of coins minted for sake of circulation. With the state quarters and president dollars, the US seems to actively be encouraging coin collecting. Much as the US Post Office actively encourages stamp collecting, and for the same reason, to keep the revenue coming in above and beyond operational costs.
Arrived today... nice coin. I find it a little odd that the New Zealand Post has its logo on the outer box, the COA, and the inner presentation box... maybe Aidan can explain why that is? (I'm aware that New Zealand's Post is a private organization, but wasn't aware they had any assoication with producing coinage. Also find it somewhat odd that the coin was actually in fact minted by the Royal Australian Mint, presumably in Australia... is having coins minted outside of the country a relatively common thing for New Zealand? Feel free to educate me on this. I know you said its regular coinage was. Which New Zealand coins are iin fact, minted in New Zealand?) The portrait of the Queen looks much better at this size than it does on smaller coins. I suppose the detail spread out over a larger area improves the appearance. Anyone know what about 28 grams of almost pure silver works out to in troy ounces? Curious about that. (Would seem less than an ounce but still more net silver than a US silver dollar.) Think having the tuatara's eye be mirrored was a nice touch, rather than having it frosted like the rest of the devices. Overall I'm pleased, though it was a bit steep in price. Nice coin, nice presentation, and it got here faster than anything I ordered from the US Mint despite having several thousand more miles to travel, lol...
Hmm, sounds pretty normal to me. For quite a few countries it makes more sense economically to order coins and/or notes from from whichever mint makes a good offer in terms of quality and price ... Christian
Troodon,New Zealand Post is the agent through which the medal-coins are marketed.There used to be a sales counter at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand itself,but it was closed down as part of the R.B.N.Z.'s shakeup a few years back. The New Zealand Mint is a private company.They have never struck anything for New Zealand,but they do strike medal-coins for the Cook Islands & Fiji though. The Royal Australian Mint is located in Canberra.It is the closest official mint closest to us.We have had coins struck at a range of mints,including the South African Mint,Pretoria,& the Royal Norwegian Mint,Kongsberg.The Royal Australian Mint & the Royal Mint are the 2 most commonly used mints that we have used,but the Royal Canadian Mint has been used a number of times.You can find some information through here; www.rbnz.govt.nz . Aidan.
Hmm, sounds like an odd arrangement to me, but that's from someone from a country that never had any of its coins minted outside of its borders (though in our early days some coins we treated as legal tender were not minted here; however any coin with "United States of America" on it was in fact minted in the USA.) I suppose if it works, it works. Seems kind of odd though that the New Zealand Mint does not in fact mint coins for use in New Zealand (private or not), and that I possess a coin marketed as a New Zealand coin, shipped from New Zealand, but in fact minted in Australia. I suppose countries that are members of the British Commonwealth don't have as much problems about having their coins minted by other members of the British Commonwealth. I can wrap my head around the idea of private mints... we have those in the US too, though they don't produce any official US coinage, but some produce them for other countries. Many foreign proof sets and commemoratives are produced by the Franklin Mint for example. I guess what really strikes me as strange is that a country doesn't have a mint inside of its own borders producing its coinage. What happens if some conflict cuts you off from the other country, such as war, terrorism, natural disaster, etc.? Would put your economy in a somehwat precarious situation (which may not be the foremost of your problems in those cases, but still a consideration). On a lesser consideration, wouldn't be more efficient not to have to ship your coinage in from overseas? Also wouldn't it be somewhat of a matter of national pride to show more of a degree of economic independence by producing your own coinage? Can't help thinking from a US prospective, was born here and lived most of my life here; I try to figure out the reasons other people and countries do things the way they do (why I'm a big history buff) but some concepts seem quite foreign to me, and it's hard for me to figure out the reasoning behind it. Being raised with the idea probably helps get your mind around it more I suppose. Keep in mind that I'm not saying one way is better than the other, just that one way makes more sense to me, much the same way that driving on the right side of the road makes more sense to me than driving on the left, despite the fact I don't consider either way inherently superior to the other. It's just the way I was raised to think. (Heck, I think the metric system is superior to the English system, but still have trouble thinking in metric without figuring out the English equivalent.)
Troodon,the cost of running a government mint in New Zealand would be too high.A similar situation applied to Ireland when it started reissuing its own coinage in 1928,so it was decided to get them struck at the Royal Mint.This was the case until the late 1970's,when the Irish Mint,which is located at the Central Bank of Ireland's Currency Centre in Sandyford,Dublin,was opened. Here's an article about the Irish Mint; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_Centre . Aidan.
Hmm, hasn't New Zealand been independent (or autonomous, or whatever the technical term is for its status) for longer than Ireland has? More than 50 years surely, the time between Ireland's independence and the opening of its own mint. However, I suppose that could be the case if New Zealand didn't have enough demand for coinage having their own mint wouldn't be economical due to economy of scale. You'd save the overhead and operating costs of having and maintaining your own mint, but would have the costs of paying someone else to do it and ship it to you. If the demand was low enough, it could in fact be worth it to pay someone esle to do the minting. If demand signficantly increased, it may become more economical to do it yourself. It seems though that they should be able to generate enough seignorage from sales of bullion, comemmoratives, proof sets and other mint products, plus seignorage from the actually circulating coins, to make a local mint self supporting (especially if they could generate signficant international sales). I guess however that the economy of scale must just not make this economical, at least not now.
New Zealand has been a Dominion since 1907,but the costs of setting up & running a mint would just be too high.New Zealand is not a mineral-rich country like Australia & Canada are. Ireland on the other hand,has managed to get its mint set up & run it within a budget.The Irish Mint does not strike coins for other countries at all. Aidan.
Figured that was likely the reason... production and maintenance costs are probably not so much the issue as easy access to raw materials (copper, zinc, nickel, silver, maybe aluminum, etc.) probably are. Is likely why as a cost saving measure they eliminated the 1 and 2 cent coins, and as mentioned here, the 5 cent coin, then made the 10, 20, and 50 cent coins smaller, as a cost saving measure. (The elimination of the 1 and 2 cent happened earlier than the elimination of the 5 cent.) They're smart enough to use a 1 dollar coin instead of a 1 dollar bill. That's a huge savings right there... I don't know why the US doesn't do that... imagine the better uses the millions of dollars that would save could be put to!
In fact, it primarily makes circulation coins. The Irish euro collector coins have been made in Llantrisant/UK, Karlsfeld/DE, Pessac/FR and Vantaa/FI. Of the three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, only the latter has a mint. Luxembourg does not have one either; its coins are made in Utrecht/NL, Vantaa, Pessac, Stuttgart/DE, Warsaw/PL and Vienna/AT. Slovenia's euro coins were made in Vantaa and Eskilstuna/SE. Malta has a mint but will have its first euro coins made in Pessac. The Cyprus pound coins have been produced in Hungary, Poland, Canada, and the UK; the CY euro circulation coins will be made in Finland. And so on ... As you wrote, it does not always pay off to maintain/operate a mint. Apart from the actual minting, you need to also make the planchets, or buy them from a metal processing company. Another issue is that certain pieces such as bimetallic coins or pieces with latent images require somewhat more sophisticated machines which are more costly. Again, you can order the blanks or "prepared" pieces from third parties, but you might as well say, why not simply buy the final product? Christian
