August 14, 2012 – Two main developments characterized the year 2011. The suspicion in some currencies increased the demand for investment products, while the high silver price made it impossible to continue striking collectors coins in circulation quality in silver. The result was that the sales of investment products were up, the sales of collector items were down on the preceding year. A greater number of circulation coins was produced and delivered to the Oesterreichische Nationalbank in 2011 than in the previous year.
However, the Austrian Mint achieved considerable growth in sales volume. 2.56 billion is the highest turnover since its founding!
775.7m euros came from sales of the Vienna Philharmonic in gold, 1,162.6m from gold bars. The sale of the Vienna Philharmonic in silver brought 468.6m.
Compared to that the 27.6m Euro from the collector sector look modest. This amount is less than the previous year, when 28.7m were achieved. This is due to the suspension of 5 and 10 euro collectors coins in circulation quality.
And here are the results from the B2B sales:
“Following the successful 2010, when B2B business volume reached approximately EUR 70m, it reached approximately EUR 63m in 2011 (EUR 9m of which was from precious metal sales), with a slightly greater number of pieces sold but with a larger proportion of lower-priced silver products.
The Austrian Mints extensive B2B product range welcomed the following developments in its principal areas:
Precious metal blanks and coinage:
During 2011 there was a strong growth in both volume and sales of silver blanks, accompanied by a decline in both for gold products. Blanks, with sales revenues of EUR 54.4m were mainly delivered to European Mints.
In 2011, sales of coins and medals made from precious metals reached EUR 3.7m (previous year: EUR 3.1m), which was higher than in the previous year due to the higher percentage of gold products.
Non-precious metal coinage and metal recycling:
Non-precious metal coinage amounting to EUR 0.6m was delivered to national banks abroad in 2011. Metal recycling was continued as a service provided by the Austrian Mint. In cooperation with partner companies, coin scrap from non-precious metal was processed for numerous customers.”
And here are the R&D projects the Austrian mint is working on:
“One particular emphasis of the Austrian Mint’s R&D projects is on new surface treatment technologies and methods for the conservation of precious metal products. Progress was made in this field in the development of surface protection for collector coins.
Further focus is placed on the development of security features for coins, while the production of prototypes for coin samples using new technologies, materials and shapes should be highlighted, as should the further metallurgic development of alloys. …
A patent was granted to the Corporation in 2011, while corresponding proceedings for the protection of two further innovations are pending.”
If you want to read the complete Annual Report, click here.