Monnaie de Paris ousts directors after Olympic medal disaster

Started by eurocoin, January 13, 2025, 05:43:36 PM

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How the Paris Mint fell off the podium with its Olympic medals

According to information from La Lettre, more than 100 defective medals have been returned by disgruntled athletes. In the midst of the crisis, the Monnaie de Paris has ousted its three production and quality directors, without managing to find a technical solution for the moment.

The problems with cracks on the Olympic medals of the Monnaie de Paris , revealed by La Lettre even before the Paris Olympics (LL of 01/29/24 ), are causing a certain feverishness at the top of the organization chart. According to our information, the CEO of the prestigious institution, Marc Schwartz , has just urgently sacrificed the three main heads of his production.

Its industrial director Jacky Frehel announced at the end of November that he would be leaving at the end of January. Éric Matte , the production director of the Paris site responsible for manufacturing Olympic medals, has not appeared at the establishment since October 2, although he was supposed to take part in meetings the following day. The head of quality, health, safety and environment, Hélène Juton , for her part, deserted her office the same month, before announcing her departure on December 13.

Quality of varnishes

These forced departures, which could take the form of conventional breaks, have their origins in the quality problems with the varnishes of the medals awarded this summer to Olympic and Paralympic athletes. According to information from La Lettre , more than 100 defective medals have already been returned by disgruntled athletes to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (Cojop) in just four months. As early as August 2, American skateboarder Nyjah Huston posted his bronze medal on social media, showing it in pitiful condition, just ten days after it was placed on the podium. This highly publicized case is far from isolated. Swimmer Maxime Grousset made an identical observation on August 9, five days after being awarded a medal.

Around August 15, the CEO of the Mint Marc Schwartz had to urgently recall his executives Jacky Frehel, Éric Matte and Hélène Juton, forced to interrupt their vacation for a crisis meeting on Quai de Conti, at the Parisian headquarters of the establishment. Since then, the complaints of the athletes about their medals have multiplied and gone viral. Two weeks ago, the winners of the 4x100 m medley Yohann Ndoye Brouard and Clément Secchi also published photos on X and Instagram of their very damaged bronze medals. Described as "crocodile skin" by the latter, they reveal cracks in the shape of scales on the Olympic charm.

The Huawei precedent

In fact, the Monnaie de Paris has been struggling with its defective varnishes for at least fifteen months, well before the start of the Olympic Games. As La Lettre revealed at the time, the prestigious public institution's troubles began with its largest foreign client, the telecoms giant Huawei . The Chinese group regularly orders work medals, which it distributes to its most deserving employees. In October 2023, the industrialist expressed the disappointment of its employees who noticed the appearance of cracks and returned a batch of more than 12,000 defective medals. The episode was badly received in the workshops, where people are saddened to see a thousand-year-old institution embodying the quality of Made in France internationally found wanting by its powerful Asian client. Some of the employees see this as the consequences of the strategic plan launched in 2019 by Marc Schwartz, placing the artisanal structure of medals under a large industrial management, alongside the Pessac factory (Gironde), specializing in large volumes of coins.

The cause of these flaking varnishes is clearly linked to the insufficient anticipation of a regulatory change by the management of the public institution. The latest update of the European Reach directive provides for the banning of a toxic component of the home varnish, chromium trioxide, which had to be replaced at short notice. Due to lack of time and perspective to carry out tests, it was Huawei's medals, then those of the Olympic Games, which bore the brunt of the new products used. In Paris, the medal workshop on the Quai de Conti is now being supported by a Lyon company specializing in industrial processes and surface treatments, in order to find a sustainable solution.

Salty bill

While waiting for the Monnaie de Paris to be able to restart reliable production, the defective medals returned by the athletes are being collected by Cojop Paris 2024. Asked by email, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) assured us that they would all be replaced "in the coming weeks" , without committing to a specific timetable.

When contacted, the management of the Monnaie de Paris made it known through its lawyer that it would not comment on the quality defects of its medals, hiding behind "business secrecy and confidentiality owed" to its customers, refusing to "express itself publicly" on "the individual situation of employees" and threatening La Lettre with a complaint for defamation.

But the bill for this affair is likely to be high for the public institution. In addition to the price to pay to launch a small series of new medals, the decision to decapitate the Paris Mint of its three senior executives will mobilize significant financial resources. Two years ago, the negotiated departure of the director of foreign currencies had reduced the EPIC budget by more than 200,000 euros, as part of a conventional termination.

Above all, this crisis comes at the worst possible time for the management of the Monnaie de Paris, which was already in difficulty after the production of millions of non-compliant euro cent coins, revealed by La Lettre (LL of 11/01/24 ). The blunder, initially downplayed by the institution, ultimately cost it 800,000 euros for 2023, a significant amount, compared to its net profit of 4.4 million euros published that same year.

eurocoin

Interesting that the issue with the medals is related to the European ban on the use of chromium trioxide (Chrome VI). Last year, a mint director told me that the ban on the use of this substance was also discussed by the Mint Directors Working Group. This person also told me that the substance was also being used in the manufacturing of proof coins.