Secretary General's Message

G’Day!

The biennial Mint Directors Conference began with only 10 European mints in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1962. It has since grown to 48 members and is more diverse and culturally rich. Technologically the minting industry has progressed from simple mono coins to multi-layer, multi-colour, high security coins. We are minting larger numbers and have created more complicated varieties of coins than ever before.

I am sure that all of us in this industry have an intimate understanding of the negative impacts of doing business in isolation. Over the years, our minting industry has developed a spirit of cooperation that is the envy of other similar industries. This has not only helped our business direction but has also encouraged us to form a close minting family.

The XXVI MDC 2010 will be held in Canberra, Australia – the same beautiful city that successfully hosted the XXI MDC in 2000. The host of the XXVI MDC is the Royal Australian Mint who have recently upgraded both their building and manufacturing facilities to meet the needs of the 21st Century. We should be assured that there will be high quality papers on a vast variety of topics such as on the new technologies and market insights.

I encourage all delegates intending to attend the conference in 2010 to learn a few Australian phrases such as “G’day” and “mate”.

I am looking forward to another successful conference “Down Under” – see you there.

Maarten Brouwer

Secretary General of the MDC