Pennies badly struck by the Paris Mint, nearly a million euros destroyed

2024-01-12 21:07:34

A million euro typo. According to media information The letter, the Paris Mint, the institution responsible for minting coins in France, has decided to destroy millions of centime coins. These cents, upon arrival, will cost the organization between 700,000 and 1.2 million euros. But why sacrifice this bunch of money? Stars poorly engraved on the parts are synonymous with a design invalidated by the European Commission.

According to the letter, the CEO of Monnaie de Paris, Marc Schwartz, wanted to impress Bruno Le Maire during his meeting on December 7. Ahead of the visit of the Minister of the Economy, the leader had urged the workers to mint 27 million coins of 10, 20 and 50 centimes with a new design. The workers even worked in “three shifts” for four days at the end of November to satisfy their boss. However, Marc Schwartz failed to wait the regulatory seven days to obtain approval from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission.

Design rejected

So much so that six days before Bruno Le Maire’s reception, the EU rejected the new look of the coins. The stars, symbols of Europe, would be too difficult to read on the side supposed to represent the Old Continent. The tons of centimes were therefore wiped out, before 27 million coins were urgently re-minted. Contacted by La Lettre, the CEO of Monnaie de Paris argues “a postponement beyond his control” and designates “the French State” as responsible for the blunder, which also represents 4% of the institution’s annual production .

Response from Bercy: an evaluation to determine the causes of this error will be launched. Marc Schwartz, for his part, intends to present the hard cash, stumbling and above all valid to Bruno Le Maire, confirmed at the head of his ministry, during a future meeting.