HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN COINS

So you want to make your own coins?

It’s not as hard as you may think

Anyone who pays attention to the modern new issues market quickly becomes aware of the outpouring of commemoratives, often from far-flung tropical island nations or war-torn African countries, but also from national mints like the Royal Canadian Mint and the Mint of Poland.

Private issuers abound, with European and Asian and even American companies directing programs intended to capture segments of the market.

Maybe you want to cash in on that craze by issuing your own coins, with a theme of your choosing? But invading a country is too dangerous, and buying a sovereign island outright is too expensive.

So, you could always partner with a mint that already has a relationship with an issuing authority like Palau, the Cook Islands, or Somalia. Let’s assume that you will coordinate the program with the Mint of Poland, which issues coins for the National Bank of Poland as well as several other partners.

You need a license to drive, but why do you need a license to issue coins?

Well, in this case, the sovereign privilege of striking coins comes at a price. Each nation is responsible for its money supply, and commemorative coins, though unlikely ever to be cashed, are in accounting-speak potential liabilities to the bottom line.

Whether it is Niue or Armenia or Belarus or any other country you want to officially issue the coins, there is a cost that must be paid. Issuers are always quiet about this relationship, but recent news reports about the New Zealand Mint suggest that the company alone pays about half-a-million dollars U.S. every year for the dozens of coin programs it issues under that island’s name.

Suddenly this proposition seems a little pricey, huh?

To read the complete article, see:
SO YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN COINS? (www.coinworld.com/voices/jeff-starck/2014/10/_so_you_want_to_make.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
MICRONATION STATECRAFT FOR DUMMIES (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n43a21.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web