The mint in Kremnica (Banská Bystrica region) is now busy melting down Slovak crown – or koruna – coins, and has been doing so since November last year, based on an agreement with the Slovak central bank (NBS).
The coins will cease to be legal tender on January 17 following Slovakia's adoption of the euro and the end of the dual-circulation period. The coins are being melted down in a demonetising machine and then recycled, a process that will continue on a large scale until the middle of 2009.
"Slovak coins were made mainly of steel and covered with a thin layer of non-ferrous metals," Kremnica Mint’s sales and marketing director, Jaroslav Setnický, told the TASR newswire. Complete sets of high-quality koruna coins were made for coin collectors at the end of 2008, and were immediately sold out, added Setický. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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