Winners of IACA Awards for Pandemic Response Initiatives

The International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) held its Excellence in Currency awards ceremony on 23 September, at which it presented the eight nominations and announced the winners of the ‘Best Currency Initiative Implemented in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic’.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) won the central bank award for the work it has done to ensure cash supply in the Philippines during the pandemic, whilst the Royal Canadian Mint was the winner in the supplier’s category for its Recognition Medal.

Keeping Cash Flowing in the Philippines

In October 2020 BSP started a new scheme, in partnership with the Bankers Association of the Philippines, called the Cash Service Alliance (CSA). Open to commercial banks, it allows the direct exchange of banknotes between the banks, rather than having to source banknotes only from the BSP, and was designed in response to the challenge of transporting cash during the lockdown.

The BSP created an online facility which allows banks to work together to match excess fit notes held with banks who need additional notes. BSP introduced guidelines about how this should work. In the first seven months 130 million notes were exchanged with a face value of P100 billion, representing 33% by volume and 36% by value of the cash needs of the banks.

Between March and May 2021 the Philippines went into another strict lockdown because of the pandemic. A further 44 million notes were exchanged with a face value of P34 million.

The CSA has resulted in fewer transportation trips, saving banks fees on collecting notes from BSP. In August this year, a fully automated version of CSA was launched, and this has resulted in even better demand and supply matching between banks.

Commenting on the award, BPS Governor Benjamin E Diokno said: ‘the international recognition is a testament to the tireless efforts of the BSP and collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders to ensure undisrupted service to the Filipinos’.

The Beating Heart of Canadians

Launched in June 2020, the Royal Canadian Mint’s Recognition Medal was an employee-led undertaking that ‘transformed the by-product of a circulation coin manufacturing contract into an meaningful and lasting way to say thank you to front line workers and everyday heroes who made it possible for Canadians to safely continue their daily lives throughout the COVID-19 pandemic’.

All net proceeds from the sale of each medal were donated to Breakfast Club of Canada’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund. In all, the RCM raised over C$743,000 to help Canadian children and their families fight food insecurity during the pandemic.

To maximise the donation, the medal was made of recycled materials and packaged by employee volunteers and their families. Minting when the RCM was partially shutdown by the pandemic was, it says, challenging. Different employee teams worked in isolation bubbles that never interacted. People worked remotely. HR worked with hundreds of employees to coordinate medal assembly and packaging at home. Engineering and machining crews designed and made tooling; production and plating teams manufactured the tokens, and complete assembly kits were prepared for volunteers.

It was the first time the RCM’s pulsating technology was applied to a plated material (previous applications were only on silver coins). The technology involves micromachining a surface to create thousands of tiny cubic arrays of micro-mirrors at different angles to reflect light and simulate motion. The technology was applied to a heart shape on the medal, to symbolise the beating heart of millions of Canadians.

Producing over 100,000 medals with a pulsating effect meant that strong die life and consistent quality of the optical feature on harder circulation coin products could be achieved. Even the bi-metal coin slugs were reshaped by retooled blanking process to ensure proper electroplating and high speed striking.

The whole project took less than two months to complete and, from a social responsibility point of view, was unique in being a pure charitable fundraising product. Never before, says the RCM, has it sold a product where 100% of the net proceeds were donated to charity. By taking full advantage of recycled materials and thanks to employees volunteering personal time, the RCM was able to maximise the donation value of each medal.

Nominations for 2022 Awards

IACA has announced that nominations will open on 4 October for the 18th round of its Excellence in Currency Awards for four categories of projects:

• Best new banknote or series

• Best new commemorative or limited circulation banknote

• Best new circulating coin or coin series

• Best new currency innovation (banknotes or coins)

For 2022, IACA will substitute the category of Best New Currency Innovation for the category that includes public education projects.

The awards will be presented during the Banknote & Currency Conference, which takes place 21-24 February 2022 in Washington DC.

More information, as well as the video of the 2021 awards presentation, can be found at www.currencyaffairs.org