Coining it

TO THE world’s bankers and finance ministers, the fraught negotiations over whether Greece will keep using the euro constitute an existential crisis. To Britain’s Royal Mint it is a commercial opportunity. “Greece is a very strong market”, says Lisa Elward, the head of bullion sales. In the three months leading up to the Greek election in January, won by the Syriza anti-austerity party, sales of the mint’s sovereign gold coins went up. Worth about £200 ($310) each, these coins have become a popular investment for Greeks who worry that their currency might plunge in value or disappear altogether.

The mint has been turning out coins for about 1,000 years. It is owned by the Treasury, but in 2010 it was vested as a private company. Most of its managers now come from private industry. The mint is expected to pay a dividend (to the Treasury) and so it is expected to behave more like a private-sector company, winning business in global markets. That it has been doing fairly successfully.