13 June 2016 JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia is in the process of designing new coins. The coins are being designed by the Monnaie de Paris company at its manufacturing facility in Pessac. The factory will produce 300 million pieces in seven categories. The new coins are expected to enter production between 2016 and 2017. The contract is worth 15 million euros and is the result of three years of negotiations. The president of the company said the Saudi coin deal represented one year of export to other clients which is 30 percent of the company's activities. The deal has been under negotiation since 2013, and the majority of negotiations dealt with the coin's design. Coin design experts from the company, who designed many currencies for other countries, such as Uruguay and Thailand, were approved for the job. During the past five years, the coin production factory has attracted contracts for 1.3 billion for the French state in comparison with 700 million during the past two years. This is a low number in comparison with countries such as Germany. © Arab News 2016
