Progress can’t be stopped and it looks like we’re moving ever faster to a new digitally oriented society. Payments are done using plastic and the future promises even more advanced possibilities using your phone to pay for things. Everything turns digital which makes things easier and faster. Except where there is a power outage. In that case we still need to rely on old bank notes and coins.

To keep the market for coins alive the Dutch mint is researching different approaches targeted at the various market segments. One of the markets identified is the collectors. Coins collectors have by definition access to financial means, and most are happy to spend a little bit to keep their collection complete.

Since a few years coins are packaged in a credit card format. A little piece of added carton which raises the price about 400%. The same way old coins are release in a new package, and for a much higher price. These carton versions are very popular. More recent the Dutch mint also started experimenting with colored coins. These have existed for a longer time, but now they have reached a more official character; specifically because they are being sold by the Royal Dutch Mint (KNM).

Since a few years the KNM started creating colored coins. Last week there was another one, and this time it was a colored two euro coin minted in honor of 200 years of Dutch kingdom. The 1500 sets of colored coins were sold out within the hour.

It still remains unclear what is the status of the colored coins. According to the KNM the coins are “Official 2 euro 200 years Monarchy 2013 in Proof-quality with color“. The coin might be official, but legally it is a modified (painted) coin, which means it cannot be used as legal tender. Based on the low amount of coins being minted it seems clear this colored set is solely aimed at collectors.

The (official) colored coins minted so far by the KNM:

There is another 5 euro coin available and this time they minted another small batch of colored coins. The number of colored coins is 1000 and this is a little bit more then the previous set with the colored tulips, which counted 750 sets. Again the entire batch sold out within a day.

The colored set of the Utrecht five euro coin exists out of 6 silver coins where each has a little colored detail. For each country/area that signed the treaty of the Peace in Utrecht there is a colored coins present in the set. For each country the coloring that is used is based on the countries flag or arms from 1713. The countries that participated were France, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Savoy.

Even though these coins are not legal tender this remains a mystery when you review the website of the royal Dutch mint. Clearly they want to sell the colored coins quickly without any hassle. They announced (*) the coins on their website with the specifications stating “Nominal value: 6 x 5 euro”. In the news item announcing the new coins the colored set is mentioned right alongside the rest of the coins. A bit strange because the colored coins are legally viewed worthless and should not be considered legal currency.

The (official) colored coins sold by the royal Dutch mint until now:

(*) Sadly the royal Dutch mint does not preserve the content of their website. As soon as a product is no longer available in their shop all the details related to the product disappear.

The departure of queen Beatrix and the arrival of our new king Willem Alexander is of course very big news and just like a lot of other commercial parties the royal Dutch mint is trying to get a nice slice of the cake. They are producing aankondigingspenningen (announcement coins), abdication sets, special 2 euro coins and a lot more merchandise. Right now all products feature the portrait of our queen, but after the 30th of April there will surely be a big number of new coins which are minted with the portrait of the new king Willem Alexander.

The new 2 euro with both portraits of Beatrix and Willem-Alexander will be mixed with the normal 2 euros and there will be 20 million of such coins, so for sure you will encounter a few of them. For collectors the KNM has a different approach. Once again the created an extra nice coin but in a very limited edition. So limited that they were sold out in days. It seems like a standard approach to quickly sell a few coins which then become very rare and expensive.

The last few emissions by the KNM in 2013:
2 euro dubbelportret – sold out in 3 days
2 euro verdrag van rome in coincard – sold out in 15 days
muntrol 2 euro dubbelportret – sold out in 1 day
BU set Nederland 2013 – sold out in 11 days

Once sold out the price of the coins usually quickly doubles. It almost obligates collectors to review the KNM facebook page and website to keep up to date with new releases. I am not sure what exactly is the advantage for the KNM, but coin dealers must be very happy.

15.000 colored coins. This was the eventual number of the orange colored lucky dime. A dime that really wasn’t very lucky if you look at the recent results of the Dutch football team.

During this sale of colored coins the Dutch Royal Mint invalidated/destroyed coins with a total value of 1.500 Euros. These 1.500 Euros they colored, packaged and sold for (1.500 x 4.95 = ) 75.250 Euros. A nice profit.

Now we wait. We wait to see that the next release by the Dutch Royal Mint will be. Will they continue with coloring parts of the coins they release or will they finally realize that colored coins are still a gray area in regard to the law and when considering coin collectors.