Brazil: Circulation coins produced in the Netherlands

[eurocoin]

For the first time in several decades, Brazil has again (partially) outsourced the production of its coins. Royal Dutch Mint has produced a total of 150 million coins of the denominations of 5 centavos and 50 centavos.

The 2019-dated 5 and 50 centavos coins minted in Brazil depict no mintmark whereas the ones produced in the Netherlands depict mintmark A. It is unknown why the mintmark caduceus wasn't used.

[chrisild]

Interesting news! Do we know why the "A" was picked? Can't be short for Utrecht, and Países Baixos would not be a match either. Maybe OlandA ...

Christian

[eurocoin]

I have just contacted Royal Dutch Mint about this and am awaiting a reply.

[redlock]

Thanks for this very interesting information. 

[eurocoin]

Information received from Central Bank of Brazil:

Dear Niels,

There was a recent decision in Brazil, which allows us to import coins.

We decided to identify the coins by international supplier, with letters, in alphabetical order.

RDM is the first supplier and was assigned the letter "A".

We also decided to not include a supplier identification on the coins produced in Brazil.

So we will likely in the future also see B, C, D etc. Strange that they did not just allow the mints to use their own mintmark, but I assume they may not be aware that many mints already have a specific mark.

[chrisild]

A little odd indeed, but why not ... Anyway, thank you for asking, and for sharing this.

Christian

[redlock]

Central Bank of Brazil recently published the mintage figures for 2019.
According to their web-site 230.912.000 5c were minted in Brazil and 97.280.000 by RDM. 137.536.000 50c were minted in Brazil and 47.264.000 by RDM.

[eurocoin]

A so far overlooked article of CNN Brazil that was published last year, with some further information on the matter.

Brazil has coins made in Holland; find out how much it costs to manufacture money

Making real banknotes and coins has become cheaper in recent years. The average cost, which has been rising since 2016, has dropped since 2018. In 2016, for example it cost BRL 0.28 to manufacture a BRL 0.05 coin. In 2018, the costs dropped to BRL 0.20. In 2019, it dropped again to BRL 0.14. The figures referred to were published by the Central Bank.

One of the explanations for the economy in production was the hiring, in 2019, of the Royal Dutch Mint, the mint of the Netherlands, to produce a batch of 5 and 50 cent coins. About 30% of the 5-cent coins produced in 2019 (about 97.2 million units) and about 25% of the 50-cent coins (about 47.2 million units) were made in the Netherlands. The government's initial objective was to contract the manufacture of coins of all denominations, but there was no interest in the market, especially due to the difficulty of finding the metals for the production of the 10 and 25 cent coins and the R$ 1 coin. These coins continued to be manufactured by the Casa da Moeda do Brasil.

The production of banknotes and coins, even when carried out in Brazil by the Casa da Moeda, uses national and imported resources and raw materials, and there are price variations in the country and abroad, according to the central bank. Also according to the central bank, the main cause of the variation in prices is the quantity produced – when it manufactures larger quantities, it is able to buy raw materials for less, and the average price is lower.

Today, only the 5, 10 and 25 centavos coins cost more to produce than their face value.

How to identify coins made in the Netherlands

To identify the coins produced in the Netherlands, the government stipulated that a letter must be minted to the left of the year "2019". So, whoever finds a coin from this year with a letter on it, shouldn't be surprised. It means that it was produced outside of Brazil.

This is not the first time the government has hired foreign companies to produce the real. In 2017, Sweden's Crane AB manufactured 100 million R$2 banknotes. To identify these banknotes, instead of the name of the Central Bank of Brazil written on the back of the note, Crane AB appears. Another way to identify them is to look at the serial number of these banknotes, which always starts with the code "DZ".

Total outstanding

In Brazil, according to BC data, around 6.438 million reais banknotes are in circulation. The R$50 note has the most units in circulation: a total of 1.934 million. The amount of coins is 26.745 million units. The R$ 0.10 one has the most units in circulation, with 7.092 million units. Also according to the Central Bank, between 2011 and 2012, the R$2, R$5 and R$10 banknotes had an average lifetime of 14 months. The R$20 notes, around 16 months, and the R$50 and R$100 notes, around 36 months. There is no data on the average lifetime of the R$200 bill.

The Mint responds:

Casa da Moeda says that "the reduction in the average cost of banknotes and coins since 2016 was predominantly due to efficiency gains at the Casa da Moeda do Brasil, which fully or mostly provided the denominations of banknotes and coins in the period, not from casual supplies by a foreign supplier". It also says that, although the tender covered all coin denominations, there were foreign bidders for only two denominations. "This is one of the main reasons for all the fifteen largest economies to have state mints: large countries do not link the issuance of their coins to the market's interest in manufacturing them," he says in a note.

Casa da Moeda emphasizes that, in 2020, "it made it possible in record time to complete the project and produce the new R$200 banknote to ensure emergency aid to the most needy, in addition to fully producing the additional demands of the Central Bank, while foreign banknote printers prioritized their own countries".

"The Royal Dutch Mint, mentioned in the article, is the exclusive producer of the coins of its country, the Netherlands. Its excess capacity is sold at marginal costs to countries that subject the issue to private commercial interest. Casa da Moeda do Brasil will always be committed to maintaining national self-sufficiency, assuming the costs related to this option".

[chrisild]

Cool, Niels. Had indeed not seen that so far, thanks!

[redlock]

@eurocoin: Thanks for the article.

The Banco Central do Brasil is actually quite frank and open about the production of coins and banknotes. But you have to look at the Portugese language site of the Banco Central.

Here is their information about production of coins and notes as of April 2022:

Referência: produção e valores médios de aquisição em 2022

Cédulas:

    R$ 2,00: R$ 271,97 / milheiro, 291.000 milheiros
    R$ 5,00: R$ 320,42 / milheiro, 87.600 milheiros
    R$ 10,00: R$ 467,86 / milheiro, 151.200 milheiros
    R$ 20,00: R$ 520,36 / milheiro, 173.400 milheiros
    R$ 50,00: R$ 447,22 / milheiro, 204.960 milheiros
    R$ 100,00: R$ 475,18 / milheiro, 273.120 milheiros

Moedas:

    R$ 0,05: R$ 111,12 / milheiro, 283.200 milheiros
    R$ 0,10: R$ 196,38 / milheiro, 218.880 milheiros
    R$ 0,25: R$ 302,40 / milheiro, 175.040 milheiros
    R$ 0,50: R$ 286,91 / milheiro, 157.780 milheiros
    R$1,00: R$ 257,84 / milheiro, 155.200 milheiros

I do not speak Portugese. But if I understand this statistic correctly it (and please, correct me if I am wrong):
Printing 1000 2 Reais banknotes costs 271,97 Reais, and they made (or ordered) a total of 291.000.000 so far.

Regarding the coins Banco Central still makes a deficit with the 5c, 10c and 25c denominations.


By the way, Banco Central also explained why the 200 Reais banknote has the same dimensions as the 20 Reais note: They wanted to get the 200 Reais note into circulation very quickly (when Covid-19 was raging through Brazil and there was a very high demand of cash). Adjusting ATMs to a new dimension banknote was seen as taking too long.

[Pabitra]

Very interesting information