Paris Mint CEO Mark Schwartz issued an order in November to redesign and mint the country’s 10, 20 and 50 cent coins. The new coins will be presented to French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire during a trip to the mint headquarters in Paris on December 7.
The plans were ready, invitations were sent, but instead of waiting for the mandatory approval of the European Commission, Schwarz went ahead with the minting. EU law allows eurozone members to redesign the “national” side of their euro coins every 15 years, but the designs require approval from the European Commission, as well as other eurozone governments, which have one week to voice any objections.
Just six days before the new coins were scheduled to go live, the design was rejected, saddled the Paris Mint with costs ranging from $768,000 to $1.6 million to melt down and re-mint the coins. According to La Littre, Schwartz said there had been a postponement beyond his control, and placed responsibility for the costly incident on the “French state.”
The French Ministry of Economy announced an assessment to understand what happened.
The Washington Post has attempted to contact Schwartz and Monnaie de Paris for comment.