Study reveals that euro coins have large economic impact

By Jeff Starck , Coin World

Published: Jul 15, 2019, 10 AM

The economic effect of coinage production in the eurozone is reportedly €13.797 billion annually.

Image courtesy of the Monnaie de Paris.

Coinage results in nearly 170,000 jobs and nearly €14 billion ($15.7 billion U.S.) worth of economic activity, according to the Institute for Industrial Research in Vienna, which produced the first detailed study on the effects of coin minting on the economy and employment in the European Union.

When considering direct and indirect effects, mints are responsible for an aggregated production of €13.797 billion in coins annually. A total of 169,900 people have jobs that are directly or indirectly linked to coin production.

For this study, the complete data of 12 mints from eight European nations were analyzed. The aggregated economic output of the home countries for the included mints covers approximately 63 percent of the entire EU economy.

The following factors were considered for the study:

➤ Direct effects, which includes the production, the value added and the number of employees at mints.

➤ Indirect effects of suppliers and service providers that depend on the production of coins, like equipment manufacturers, raw material suppliers and logistics companies. Their production, value added and number of employees are considered in this second dimension.

➤ Induced effects: Every person earning their salary directly or indirectly in connection with coin minting feeds it into the economy through their consumption. The third dimension considers the economic impact of that.

Due to the specific nature of coins, their strategic importance and their role of directly providing cash to the public, a fourth financial dimension applies specifically to the coin business.

Factors in that fourth dimension include the many economic transactions that hinge on the existence of coins; the profit generated for federal governments for striking coins at costs lower than face value; and the tourism value of coinage, which acts as “a sort of miniature poster advertising a country, a region, an achievement in culture, sports or science, thus promoting tourism.”

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