Destruction of “wrong” money will cost 1.2 million euros
27 million eurocent coins were minted at the Paris Mint. The European Commission found them non-compliant. The fact is that the general director of the mint, Mark Schwartz, did not wait for approval of the new design to begin production, hoping for the support of the French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire.
Paris Mint — The body responsible for minting the euro in France caused a major scandal in the country, which led to the destruction of millions of coins and cost the budget of the government agency in the amount of 700 thousand to 1.2 million euros.
Let's remember that its CEO Mark Schwartz ordered the release of 27 million coins of 10, 20 and 50 euro cents with the new design, without waiting for the preliminary but mandatory verification of the European Commission (ECFIN), which oversees the verification of euro coins and banknotes. But this process takes seven days, waiting for a response from the Director General of ECFIN.
According to the information contained in the letter, the head of the Paris Mint wanted the new coins to be presented to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, on the occasion of his visit to the headquarters of the Paris Mint. The workers of the enterprise minted coins for four days in a row so that everything would be ready on the appointed day. But a few days before the ministerial visit, the new French design was replaced by a retouched image sent from Brussels. The European Commission cited the reason for the changes: poorly visible stars on the front side, representing the EU.
«An unforgivable insult to the symbol of the European Union!” — says the French publication La Lettre.
After receiving a letter with a changed design, the Paris Mint had to destroy the non-conforming eurocents and then urgently mint 27 million new coins. According to La Lettre, responsibility for a “serious typo” During the production of monetary materials, Mark Schwartz entrusted the “French state”, so the country is usually called the Ministry of Finance and Economics.
The Ministry of Finance, for its part, is trying to minimize the recent destruction and new production of millions of coins, which accounted for 4 percent of the Paris Mint's annual production.