Coins Become a Deficit

Since 2002 the National Bank of Belarus has been trying to revive the domestic commemorative coin market, and nowadays the sales volume of such coins issued by the Bank increases almost twice every year
This was reported by Director of General Directorate of Emission-Cash Transactions of the National Bank, Vladimir Sokol, during the first day of the international numismatic conference “Circulation of Money in Belarus: the Past and the Present” held in Minsk.

Some new issue coins are sold out within a couple of days. Fastest of all, perhaps, the coin “Lis” with a diamond insert was sold. Its sales price was about USD 150, and nowadays it costs about 3 times more in the numismatic market.

Some old issue coins are now difficult to buy. For instance, at present there are only 3 kinds of silver coins at General Directorate of the National Bank of Minsk and Minsk region. But the National Bank gradually re-issues the coins that haven’t been sold out in full and supplies them to the market.

According to the National Bank specialists, the growth of the interest in coins has been caused by a number of reasons. Among them are the high quality of the coins, their relatively low price and the National Bank’s efforts to promote the coins in the market. For example, the artist of the National Bank, Svetlana Nekrasova, said that when issuing the coins devoted to the rites of peoples of Belarus, they envisaged the possibility to use them as presents to public holidays. The series “Tales of World’s Nations” was initially devised with the purpose to enter the international numismatic market.

Many coins are sold not only in Belarus, but also abroad. From the 1,500 issued “Lis” coins, more than 1,000 were sold abroad. All in all, the National Bank has sold about 50 thousand coins outside Belarus. The demand for the Belarusian coins was encouraged by their high quality that this year won an international recognition. These achievements couldn’t remain unnoticed. According to Vladimir Sokol, after winning a number of contests the National Bank started receiving proposals of cooperation from foreign dealers.

The National Bank has recently increased the number of its coin series. Thus, 19 series have already been issued and this year the National Bank is going to start issuing coins of two more series. The first series will be devoted to the persons who contributed a lot to the development of the Belarusian statehood. The first coin of this series will be dedicated to the legendary Polotsk prince Vseslav Charodey (Vseslav the Enchanter), which will be followed by the coin dedicated to the governors of the principality — Rogvolod and Rogneda.

Next year the National Bank will start issuing the coin series “Family Traditions of the Slavonic People”. They will reflect the most meaningful events in the life of a person — weddings, birthdays, housewarming and so on. One can surmise this to be the National Bank’s marketing effort.
Some series have almost been completed. This year the issuing of the coin series “Architectural Monuments of Belarus” has been terminated and next year the Bank is going to consummate the series “Belarusian Cities”.

Vladimir Tarasov
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