Royal Mint May Start Minting Gold Dinar Coins By Oct

[Tachyon Flare]

http://www.bernama.com.my/B2002v2/ar...iness/bu0605_1

Royal Mint May Start Minting Gold Dinar Coins By Oct

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- The Royal Mint of Malaysia, Asean's only coin minting company, is targeting to begin minting the Gold Dinar before October this year as commemorative coins.

"I think before October we can start the minting," its managing director, Datuk Megat Mohamed Abdul Wahab, said here, Tuesday.

"We hope to produce the Gold Dinar not as a currency but as commemorative coins for the payment of zakat (tithes) or mas kahwin (dowry)," he told newsmen here, Tuesday, after the launching of the Kuala Lumpur International Money Fair 2003.

He also said that Royal Mint was in the midst of preparing a proposal to mint the dinar and expects to make the submission next week to Bank Negara Malaysia.

Megat Mohamed disclosed that Royal Mint was talking with Islamic scholars from the International Islamic Universtity to standardise pegging of dowry to gold dinar. At present, dowry varies between states in Malaysia.

If the dinar could be standardised as a dowry in Malaysia, it has the potential to be used in neigbouring countries like Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore, he said.

On the planned denomination of the dinar, he said that it would be up to the central bank to decide.

As for Royal Mint's plan to produce coins for Asean countries, he said that the company was in serious discussion with "a big Asean country" on the matter.

"We are supposed to go there and talk but because of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), we have to postpone it for a while," he said.

Royal Mint's venture to produce coins for other countries would be backed by the company's RM20 million investment in a totally new facility at its Shah Alam plant.

The new facility allows the company to produce two billion pieces of blank coins per year.

Megat Mohamed said that after another RM16 million investment, Royal Mint could now produce 1.2 billion pieces of minted coins per annum compared with 400 million pieces of minted coins per year prior to its privatisation from Bank Negara.

The Royal Mint of Malaysia, established in 2000, is the country's sole minter of coins and medallions.

Its main customer is Bank Negara Malaysia, which accounts for about 80 percent of its total business.

-- BERNAMA