2017-08-22 Tue

On 1st January 2018, the Royal Mint of Belgium in Brussels is going to close down operations. The contract would be given to someone else for producing Belgian euro coins using a bidding process. The machinery of the mint will be sold but the building will not be sold. The production staff reduced and currently, there are only eight people out of the total staff of 48.

Belgian euro coins and Belgian commemorative coins were produced at this Mint. The National Bank of Belgium dictated the orders but the demand for euro coins in this country had reduced over the last seven years.

The production for 2017 might reduce to almost half of the production in 2010. Almost 81 million 1-, 2-, and 5-cent coins were produced by the Mint in 2016 out of almost 84 million coins that were struck in total. It takes 1.146 euro cents to produce a 1-cent coin. Rounding was implemented in 2014, due to which there is very low demand for small change.

Belgian euro coins will continue to be distributed by National Bank of Belgium. There is a possibility that Mint of Finland will strike coins for Belgium. Mint of Finland produces euro coins for Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Denmark. Another possibility is the Belgian firm Groep Heylen, which bought the Royal Dutch Mint this year.

The Royal Mint of Belgium building opened in 1969 when the term “Royal” was added to its name and the new facility was opened.