By Doug Andrews, World Coin News

Remaining competitive internationally, leveraging off technology and exploiting opportunities as world metal prices continue to rise will be the objectives of the Royal Canadian Mint, says its president and chief executive officer, Ian Bennett.

The Mint recently announced a record C$30.1 million profit for 2007.

“Our target had been growth, now it is growth and profit,” Bennett said. “We doubled our profit last year, which was a great achievement,” Bennett noted in an exclusive interview with World Coin News.

The mint’s use of its multi-ply plating process for circulating coinage is essential to attracting contracts from foreign governments.

“This allows us to produce coins at much lower cost than other mints, and it is part of our medium term plan, to exploit our competitive advantage as much as we can. Our goals are tough to achieve in this economy and with the rising Canadian dollar, but it’s something that we have to strive to do,” Bennett said.

Part of the RCM strategy is to invest in replacement of all the presses in its Winnipeg production facility with higher speed equipment, and to expand plating capacity. Since 2005 the plant has doubled its plating volume and has licensed its patented technology to leading suppliers, including Jarden Zinc Products Inc. of Greeneville, Tenn. The Canadian Mint is aggressively pursuing other partnerships in its quest for more foreign business.

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By Ken Potter for Numismaster

A wrong-planchet half dollar dated 1980-P with a four-digit value has been found. A Pennsylvania hobbyist reported it May 30.

“I found this 1980-P Kennedy half in a roll yesterday and I think it might be a wrong planchet error but I’m not sure. There is only a slight trace of reeding on the edge and the condition is probably about uncirculated (AU). It’s also smaller in diameter and a little thinner than a normal Kennedy half. I don’t have the proper equipment to weigh it. Any help in identifying it would be greatly appreciated,” RHM wrote.

Without an actual examination of the coin and without knowing its weight, it is impossible to conclusively attribute the planchet to a United States or other country’s coin (the U.S. Mint struck coins for other countries in 1980).

What we do know from the metal flow that shows on the characters closest to the rim is that it was struck on an undersized planchet. However, the finder was able to add a bit of information that helped immensely; he later confirmed my suspicion that he could see a copper core. This suggests that it is a clad planchet of the type used for dimes through dollars during that year.

In my opinion, the coin is too spread-out and fills too much of the collar for it to have been struck on a quarter planchet. This suggests that it was most probably struck on a Susan B. Anthony dollar planchet. If so, an estimation of its value from a panel of error coin experts is somewhere between $850 and $1,750 for an AU grade.

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By David L. Ganz for Numismatic News

It seemed like it was raining coinage legislation on Capitol Hill in May as the House of Representatives passed bill after bill that sets up new coin programs. If the Senate concurs, and the President signs the measures into law, the face of coin collecting will likely not be the same. Replacing it will be a quilt work of new programs and directions.

First and foremost on the scene was the double eagle ultra-high relief in gold, and a second version in palladium. See separate story on Page 4.
Other legislation makes for one of the busiest numismatic Congresses in recent memory:

Star-Spangled Banner and War of 1812 Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Act (Under House consideration May 13 when squabbles broke out among the Democrats and Republicans, but passed under unanimous consent May 15. Referred to Senate Banking Committee May 19 after being Received from House) [H.R. 2894.]

• It authorizes 350,000 silver dollars in 2012 and instructs the secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue $1 coins in commemoration of the bicentennial of the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner and the War of 1812. It requires a coin design emblematic of the War of 1812, particularly the battle for Fort McHenry that formed the basis for the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

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