The E-Sylum:  Volume 11, Number 2, January 13, 2008, Article 10

ROYAL CANADIAN MINT RELAXES COIN IMAGE STANCE

Dick Johnson writes: "The Royal Canadian Mint backed down
from charging the City of Toronto a ton of money for using
the illustration of a Canadian cent in an advertising
campaign, designed to elicit favorable opinion for a
proposed cent tax increase. We first reported on this in
The E-Sylum October 7, 2006 (volume 10, number 40, article 24).

"The RCM had sent an invoice of $47,680 for the use of
illustrating the image of a shiny 2007 Canadian cent.
When the invoice arrived, $10,000 was cited for using
"one cent," $10,000 for the campaign phone number 416-ONE-CENT,
and $27,460 for uses such as the onecentnow.ca web address.

" 'Everyone should understand that they can't get a free
ride from the mint when it comes to them using our
intellectual property,' said an RCM official. The minimum
invoice for use of a coin image or term in ads is $350,
plus a royalty of about 2% of an ad campaign's value.
Schools and news organizations are exempt.

"The official would not disclose other fee ranges, but
said "they are normally different from public institutions
and a commercial enterprise.

"The Royal Canadian Mint is doing extremely well. They
are leading the world in some of the ethnology they have
developed. Their order books are completely full for the
entire 2008 year for custom minting for other countries.
They don't need to engage in such harassing tactics.

"In other countries, the illustrations of a country's
coins are considered the property of the people. No mint,
to my knowledge, has ever charged for the illustrations
of coins they manufacture. This was a first for Canada
and a very ill-advised move on the part of the RCM. It
should have been rejected and should not be repeated
in the future."

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

 CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS TOUT CENT DEMISE
 esylum_v10n40a24.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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