Norges Bank scraps mintmark on Norwegian coins

[eurocoin]

Bank of Norway has informed the Norwegian Mint to not include its mintmark on the 2020-dated Norwegian coins. The mintmark has been replaced by an NB mark that refers to Norges Bank. The mintmark of Mint of Norway, crossed hammers, was first introduced on the Norwegian coins in 1686 (the year Mint of Norway was founded). Mintmaster of Mint of Norway Ståle Løkken mentioned that the Bank of Norway did not provide a reason for their decision.

[Pabitra]

Looks like a signal that closure of Norwegian mint is imminent

[eurocoin]

Looks like a signal that closure of Norwegian mint is imminent

Hmm.. Mint of Norway is a private company of the Samlerhuset group. I understand they are doing reasonably ok (very small company because of which they have low costs meaning they do not need many orders to stay alive), so I do not expect an imminent closure.

[chrisild]

Three years ago the outlook was apparently a little different. This article from October 2017 says "Myntverket på Kongsberg kan gå mot nedleggelse" which according to various machine translation sources means "The Mint at Kongsberg may close down".

Did not happen though, and in June 2019 this text even talks about increasing demand, and the mint hiring again ...

Christian

[eurocoin]

Norges Bank informed me that as Mint of Norway is since 2003 no longer owned by the Norwegian government and as tenders for the production of the Norwegian coins are regularly being held (and so it is possible that other companies may in the future produce the Norwegian coins), what I gather from their message is that they felt it better and more 'official' to not allow these private companies to add their marks but instead use the NB mark of Norges Bank.

I can see what they mean but on the other hand, these governments should understand that the adding of mintmarks on the coins is a tradition that goes back a long time and I don't think it would be good to scrap this tradition just because mints are no longer state-owned and the mintmark may change from time to time when another mint wins the tender.

I find that the NB mark for Norges Bank is just meaningless on the coin.

[redlock]

and the mintmark may change from time to time when another mint wins the tender.

which, in my opinion, is part of the fun of collection coins