Following ongoing campaigning concerning the proposal of new 5p and 10p coins by Jonathan Hilder, CEO of the Automatic Vending Association, an article has been published in the Daily Telegraph
Read this article and see the comments it has recieved by clicking HERE
You can read the response that Jonathan has also had from the Royal Mint by clicking more…
Dear Jonathan
Thank you for your letter dated 26th August 2010 which was brought to our attention by Andrew Wallace. Unfortunately we have yet to receive your original letter, to avoid these delays could we agree to correspond by e-mail? My e-mail address is Andrew.Mills@royalmint.com.
I, personally was disappointed that we were unable to meet when you visited earlier in the year due to travel commitments and similarly we are very concerned that that you may not be fully aware of the circumstances which led to suspending the consultation process.
However, I can confirm that you were correctly informed during your visit of our plans to submit proto-type samples to the manufacturers of the validation elements of coin operated equipment for testing purposes, with bulk samples to follow once we had collated feedback. Our timescales at that time were indeed based on distributing the bulk samples for testing and calibration purposes in July.
Due to the announcement of the general election we were unable to continue the consultation process due to restrictions of parliament. However, following the election we proceeded with the distribution of the initial proto-type samples on the 18th June 2010.
We also asked recipients for feedback to ensure that the production of the bulk samples, which will be used by your members for testing and calibration purposes, are representative of coins from the bulk production process.
We have completed the first part of this process and we have also completed production of the bulk samples. These samples will be distributed to all interested parties over the next three working days.
Whilst we will be commencing production of the new coins in earnest during the first quarter of next year in order to meet our commitments to HM Treasury, and to ensure that we have sufficient stocks to meet demand from the Banks and Post Office throughout 2011, the new coins are not expected to be drawn until early spring 2011. The latest forecast from the industry currently indicates that there will be no demand for new 5p and 10p coins between January and March next year.
Your concerns have been taken very seriously and from the communications we’ve had with various sectors we understand that they are keen to facilitate this change both swiftly and cost effectively.
Conversely from our correspondence with a key sector, we understand that many companies will not be converting their equipment to accept the new coins until the volumes reach approximately ten percent of the overall volume of 5ps and 10ps in circulation. We would be interested to learn your views on this and we would welcome a meeting to discuss these issues further.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Mills
Director of Circulating Coin
