Financial situation Royal Dutch Mint

Started by eurocoin, November 05, 2015, 09:27:06 AM

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eurocoin

#15
The loss of Royal Dutch Mint in the year 2014 is 11.3 million euros pre-tax. Furthermore they still owe the Ministry of Finance 18 million euros, which they have to pay back from February 2017. There will also be a loss over 2015, of which the total amount is not yet known  :(

Update 23-04-2016: Loss over 2015 is 11.5 million euros.


Figleaf

The level of their debt is not important. What is important is how much time they have to repay it. If the answer is 12 months, it will break the camel's back. If they get 18 years, they can pay it out of the profits and never feel the pain. The decision on whether they live or die is therefore still in the hands of the ministry of finance. As long as they put the mint's debt on their book as a credit and it gets repaid regularly, there is no problem. If they insist on early repayment, they kill the chicken that lays a 1 million egg every year. As uncertainty continues, they won't even find a capable successor for the mint master. Who wants to be the captain of a ship that may be sunk soon?

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Bimat

Wow, one failed Chilean contract in 2013 and RDM seems to have lost the way! A good case study for economics students!

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

eurocoin

Royal Dutch Mint has now closed its Ebay shop 'Numismatiek'. Products were being sold there for way under the prices in their Webshop.

eurocoin

The Dutch Ministry of Finance is going to sell the Royal Dutch Mint. When I enquired about it at the treasury earlier today, they didn't want to confirm that but very good sources now confirm this. The Dutch Ministry of Finance has contacted foreign mints, metal processors and financial investors. Royal Dutch Mint will be sold this summer. Until 2018 Dutch coins will be minted in The Netherlands, afterwards this will be tendered. :(


eurocoin

Royal Dutch Mint just gave some comments on the recent news. They write in an email that they have sent to all of their clients, that they have long lasting contracts with foreign national banks and governments and that they have recently signed new contracts for the production of coins. Due to the restructuring, the costs of the production have been lowered significantly which makes that the mint is now ready for the future.

eurocoin

Royal Dutch Mint has been ordered by the government to scrap 300 million euro coins that were in the storage. Royal Dutch Mint was in charge of keeping the storage well-stocked but it seems that they exaggerated a little bit.. Until 2020 Dutch coins will be minted at the Royal Dutch Mint afterwards the Dutch National Bank will tender this. The Dutch National Bank is now in charge of the stock of the coin storage.

Figleaf

I understand that completely. The last few mint masters were in essence metal traders. They looked at the stock of withdrawn coins as scrap. They probably had them on the books with a value calculated with 2000 prices. Next came the internet bubble crisis and metal prices tanked. Just when they started to recover, the Lehman crisis depressed them again and they are not back on the 2000 level yet. In other words: the scrap coins could only be sold at a loss, considering their book value.

Next, they over-produced euro coins for an economy that was constantly trying to overcome the harsh hands of rightist politicians and Chicago school economists in the Ministry of Finance. They should have written down on that stock, of course, and denied the Ministry of Finance the profits they siphoned off. Instead, they took a huge inventory price risk they were not rewarded for.

They were probably scared for their existence all the time, thinking they needed a profit to keep in existence. Wrong. Civil servants don't care about profits. They care about budgets. If you break even they're happy. If you make a profit they will be happier and sell you off eventually and only if you make a loss you'll be closed. Profit and loss can be smoothened by manipulating write-offs. Sooo...

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

eurocoin

Inter alia International Quiding from Luxembourg and PNM Global Group from California have been contacted to ask if they are interested in buying the Royal Dutch Mint.

Off topic: In 2015 the Royal Dutch Mint was unable to produce 55 million 5 euro cent coins. It turned out that Royal Dutch Mint didn't have enough blanks for the production.When they finally had enough blanks in stock, it turned out that these blanks didn't meet the specifications and the bad blanks had to be taken out by hand.

The central banks of many foreign countries only want to buy from a state-owned mint so once Royal Dutch Mint becomes a private mint they will have less potential customers.

eurocoin

Today there were new debathes about the mint being sold. There has been decided that the government wants to maintain the tradition that commemorative coins and collectors coins are being minted in Utrecht as then a first strike ceremony can be held which the royals and special guests seem to like.

eurocoin

For years cash transporter Brink's has transported large quantities of coins from Belgium to the Netherlands. This is one of the reasons why there were too many coins in stock in the Netherlands and so why Royal Dutch Mint was unable to mint any Dutch euro coins for years while Royal Mint of Belgium was able to still mint large quantities. This has now been stopped.

A report that was recently published following a Freedom of Information request from the Dutch newspaper 'De Volkskrant' shows that the treasury estimates that there is a high chance that the mint will be sold. If it won't be sold however, it will be closed. Many governments who tender their coin minting mention in the tender that only mints can bid of which at least 51% is owned by a government. It is unknown wether the Dutch treasury wants to sell RDM completely. I doubt there will be a future for the company if they do. In this report is being mentioned that Mint of Chile is the biggest competitor of Royal Dutch Mint for the production of circulating coins. Royal Mint of Belgium is being mentioned as the biggest competitor for the production of collectors coins, medals and tokens.

Scancoin turned out to be the manufacturer of the faulty machinery which caused the enormous loss. The company said it was not responsible for the damage but a recent court case against the company was won by the Royal Dutch Mint.

In its Freedom of Information Request 'De Volkskrant' also asked for any documents which show a connection between Royal Dutch Mint and European Central Mint/Patrick O. It seems that the media is eager to find a new 'scandal' after the Poongsan drama. No documents were found in the posession of the treasury concerning ECM or Patrick O.

eurocoin

Quote from: eurocoin on November 05, 2015, 10:15:18 AM
Royal Dutch Mint is the only company that exchanges Dutch 5 euro collectors coins, it will no longer be possible to exchange these coins when Royal Dutch Mint closes and so it will no longer be possible to pay with them (large stores that accept them also exchange them at RDM).

Today, Royal Dutch Mint signed an agreement with the company 'Goudwisselkantoor'. From now on Dutch collectors coins can be exchanged for face value at the branches of this company in the Netherlands and Belgium.

chrisild

Hmm, wouldn't the DNB accept/exchange those too?

eurocoin

Quote from: chrisild on September 09, 2016, 07:16:48 PM
Hmm, wouldn't the DNB accept/exchange those too?

No, at present the Dutch National Bank doesn't exchange Dutch collectors coins.

I was quite surprised to find out about this new agreement. In April the Ministry of Finance wrote that the exchanging of collectors coins is likely going to be taken over by the Dutch National Bank. But now suddenly Royal Dutch Mint (soon no longer a state participation) has an agreement with this company that is going to take care of the exchanging of collectors coins through an agreement with RDM..

chrisild

Somewhat strange, but then again this deal probably means there will be more locations where collector coins can be exchanged. Good. :) Well, I will keep mine ...

Christian