July 17, 2014 – On Tuesday, June 17th and Wednesday, June 18th 2014 the summit conference of precious metals and coin industry took place under the patronage of Schoeller Münzhandel in Vienna. It was a professional exchange between refineries, mints, machine producers and selected wholesalers sharing many interesting news – in keynotes, discussions and workshops.
Numismatics – the study of money and its history as well as coin collecting – has many aspects: coins are not only popular as an established means of payment but also as historic pieces, an investment, valuable gifts or lifestyle products.
The following outline will give you a first impression of the keynotes:
Dieter Merkle, Schuler Pressen; Alex Wegner; Heimo Steriti, Coin Invest; Pavel Trtik. Copyright Schoeller Münzhandel.
Dieter Merkle, Managing Director of Schuler Pressen, which is part of the Andritz group: “It is important to enter the market with innovations at the right point of time. We were the first ones to launch bimetal coins. Now we can produce trimetal coins, equally involving polymers.”
Dr. Stefan Augustin: “Do we still need money in cash? Cash will continue to exist. There is a continuous rise in demand of coins and paper money – on the market there has been observed a trend for paying small amounts in cash. Presently in Europe there are bill rounding projects to simplify payments for end costumers and retailers. In any case the 1-cent and 2-cent coins will maintain their nature of a legal currency.”
Univ.-Prof. MMag. Dr. Josef Schuch, Managing Partner at Deloitte &Touche: “During the last ten years, Austria has outperformed the Eurozone as to the gross national product and is one of the wealthiest economies in the EU. Strikes are rare and also low unemployment are the reasons why Austria is an attractive choice for expansions. Austria is still the gateway to the Eastern European countries, particularly to those formerly part of the Habsburg Monarchy.”
Mike Jones, E-Commerce Manager at Royal Canadian Mint: “With 680,000 webshop orders, the trend continues upward, 60% of the Canadian Mint´s turnover of numismatic products is already generated online. Clients are looking for convenience, therefore we go out of our way to offer them even more than that.”
Dr. Georg Krause, General Manager of SAP: “Industry 4.x offers companies completely new ways of production and distribution. Not for nothing it is called the fourth industrial revolution. Our children will come upon completely new workplaces with creativity being the most sought after talent, due to the standardization of many processes.”
Programme of the Master Coin Conference
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 – Hotel De France, Schottenring 3, 1010 Vienna
1pm-1:15pm: Welcome by Schoeller Muenzhandel
(Opening)
1:20pm-1:55pm: Innovative systems – Challenges in minting technology – Dieter Merkle, Schuler Pressen
2:00pm-2:35pm: E-commerce Marketing – Mike Jones, Royal Canadian Mint
2:50pm-3:25pm: Big gold coins – big risk? – Rodolphe Krempp, Monnaie de Paris
3:30pm-4:05pm: Collectors behavior in Germany – Prof. Dr. Jens Kleine
4:25pm-5:00pm: Raison d’être for Gibraltar’s entry into the international coin market – Albert Poggio, Representive of H.M. Government of Gibraltar
5:05pm-5:45pm: Workshops
Is mailing for coins dead? – Niels Hagemann, MDM
Commemorative coins: technical limitations of new innovations – Heimo Steriti, Coin Invest
As of 6:45pm: Austrian Opera Award (Verleihung des Österreichischen Musiktheaterpreises)
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – Austrian Mint, Am Heumarkt 1, 1030 Vienna
10:00am-10:30am: Welcome by Mag. Gerhard Starsich, Münze Österreich
10:30am-11:10am: Circulation Coins – Dr. Stefan Augustin, Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Josef Schuch, Deloitte; Gustav Mayer & Gernot Maier, CEO Schöller Münzhandel; Stefan Augustin, Austrian Nationalbank. Copyright Schoeller Münzhandel.
11:15am-11:55am: Industrial Location Decisions – Univ. Prof. Dr. Josef Schuch, Deloitte
12:15pm-12:55pm: Industry 4.0 – Dr. Georg Krause, SAP Austria
1:00pm-1:40pm: The American Market – Terry Hanlon, Dillon Gage
2:00pm-2:40pm: Diversification in bullion product – Natanya Van Niekerk, Rand Refinery
2:40pm-3:25pm: Gold in Central Banks – Dr. Claus Fischer, Münze Österreich (Gold in Zentralbanken)
You can find more information on Schoeller Münzhandel at the company’s website.