With Slovenia changing over to the euro on 1 January 2007, the manufacture of Slovenian euro coins at the Finnish company Mint of Finland is running at full steam.
The manufacture of the ordered package worth a total of EUR 103.9 million will be completed within a month's time, the company's CEO Raimo Makkonen said at Friday's meeting with Sloveniana reporters. He explained that the delivery of the coins to Slovenian banks is already underway in line with the Slovenian central bank's plans.
Mint of Finland was chosen on the basis of an international tender, issued by Banka Slovenije to all 22 mint companies in the EU. The deal involves the production of 296.3 million euro coins with Slovenian motives, which weigh a total of 1,465 tonnes.
Due to security concerns, the Finnish mint avoided discussing concrete figures and is similarly secretive about the coins' journey to Slovenia.
"The coins are transported to Slovenia by road, whereby the route changes each time and is understandably concealed from the public," Makkonen told the Slovenian visitors as he gave them a tour of the third biggest mint in the EU, located just outside Helsinki.
The head of the company's design department Erkki Vainio offered more details on the manufacturing procedure. He explained the after receiving the design, a whole week is needed for the scanning procedure, after which it takes another two weeks to produce a pattern.
After this, the mass manufacture of coins can begin, with the minting machine producing 750 coins per minute, Vainio explained.
He finds the two-euro coin featuring Slovenian poet France Preseren (1800-1849) and the 20-cent coin with two Lipizzaner horses to be the most beautiful of the Slovenian euro coin series.
"We were having the most difficulties with the design of the two-cent coin, as the demanding profile of the Prince's Stone required some adjustments," Vainio explained.
The transport of the coins to Slovenian banks, which ordered a total of 235.7 million coins with a total value of EUR 78.9 million, is already underway. None of the banks will, however, reveal any further details.
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