New coins for Pacific countries

Transcript

Tonga, the Cook Islands and Vanuatu are looking forward to the delivery of their brand new coins this year.

The coins, which feature unique fauna, flora and national designs, will cost less to produce.

Koroi Hawkins reports.

The new coins are being struck at the Royal Australian Mint and the three countries follow in the footsteps of Samoa and Solomon Islands which have already minted their new coins. The Mint's Chief Executive, Ross McDiarmid, says the push to make new coins began four years ago when some Pacific Island countries were told some of their coins were in negative seigniorage.

ROSS MCDIARMID: Which means that the purchasing price of the coin may actually be greater than its face value which put them into a negative return on that particular coin. So we have looked at refining the materials, looked at the sizes of the coins and come up with a solution. That overall for a particular country will ensure that those coinse are in positive seigniorage.

Tonga will be first to receive its new coins in June to coincide with the coronation of King Tupou the VI whose image will be on one side of the new coins. It will be followed by Vanuatu and Cook Islands which will this year be marking a special anniversary as the Cook Islands Finance Minister, Mark Brown, explains.

MARK BROWN: We have just been to Canberra for the inaugral striking of the new coins that the Cook Islands are putting out and we will be putting those into circulation on the fourth of August to commemorate the 50th anniversary of self governance for the Cook Islands. But these new coins are part of the coin reforms we have undertaken in basically changing the size of the coins especially the lower denominations the 10, 20 and 50 cents. But also changing the colour of our one dollar and two dollar coins to gold. And the introduction of a new five dollar coin which features the traditional voyaging vaka of the Polynesians.

The Cook Islands is known for its monetary oddities. It is one of only few countries that has a widely circulated five dollar coin and it is one of only two in the world that has a triangular two dollar coin. The other is Bermuda's Triangle coin. The Mint's Chief Executive Ross McDiarmid says the new Pacific coins are a smart alternative to traditional coinage and he hopes to be able to help other Pacific countries review their coins.

ROSS MCDIARMID: We are extraordinarily proud and privileged to do the work on behalf of these Pacific Island nations and we look forward to working with others who may wish to follow the same path as the five countries we are now producing coins for. We can provide a much more comprehensive review of those coins rather than simply just producing them, so if countries wish to talk with us we would be delighted to talk to them.

Mr McDiarmid says all the new coins for Tonga, Cook Islands and Vanuatu will have unique fauna, flora and national designs. Apart from indicating that the Tongan coins will have the new King Tupou VI on one side all other designs will be revealed by the respective countries at their discretion.