BSP urged to issue new coins with better features

MANILA, Philippines - To protect a country’s currency against counterfeiters, its financial authorities should not just replace the old bank notes in circulation, according to Jeff Hanke, international sales director of world-renowned, Royal Canadian Mint (RCM), adding the country also needs to issue new coins whose security features have been upgraded.

Hanke, who recently visited the Philippines as part of his Asian tour, commended the move of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to demonetize the old bank notes by January next year. This will result in the use of the New Generation Currency (NGC) bank notes introduced in December 2010 as the single currency series in the country, he added.

After successfully demonetizing bank notes, the monetary authority may consider issuing a new series of coins that will symbolize the Philippines’ robust economic growth,” said Hanke, adding “being able to prevent fraud is crucial to the integrity of a country’s currency system.”

This is the reason, he said, why a growing list of countries have replaced their old alloy coins with multi-ply plated steel (MPPS) coins. To date, aside from the RCM, there are two other world-leading coin blank manufacturers which also actively service central banks with multi-ply coins.

Using a technology that RCM invented, multi-ply double annealed coins have a steel core over which are electroplated three layers of metals: nickel over copper over nickel for silver-colored coins, and brass over copper over nickel for gold-colored ones, Hanke explained.

Singapore has just joined Canada, New Zealand and many countries around the world that have been using MPPS. Because of its distinct feature that produces a unique electro-magnetic signatures, Singapore is closely working with coin operated machine manufacturers as the MPPS has electro-magnetic profiles which allows vending machines to detect counterfeit coins.

About 34 nations uses multi-ply plated steel for their coinage. Aside from Singapore, Indonesia is also now using multi-ply coins. This, according to Hanke, validates RCM’s finding that these coins last long in the tropics.

“RCM’s multi-ply technology also allows the thickness of each alternating metal layer to be controlled to conform to a sequence which is customized to a specific denomination in a specific country,” Hanke added.

“With multi-ply technology, we can make the copper layer thin or thick, we can put it at the bottom or on top, or we can move the copper any way we want to create a different electromagnetic signal, making the coins’ security feature significantly better,” he said.

Since coin-operated equipment like vending machines, public telephones and even videoke players are equipped with sensors that detect not only the weight and size of coins, but also their metal content, they can be programmed to accept only coins with the authorized electromagnetic profile.

In addition to being secure, MPPS coins, according to Hanke, are also more durable. He explained: “This is because the technology requires the coins to go through double annealing wherein the first annealing cleanses the steel core of any excess oil and residue before plating the layers into the coins for final annealing. This ensures strong adhesion of the many layers in the coins.”