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8. RESULTS OF SURVEY
Contractual terms agreed with promotional companies
8.1
We now turn to a detailed analysis of the contractual
arrangements for the issue of numismatic coins. As expected, the
survey has pointed to a number of fundamental differences between the
US and UK types of contract. In the context of this report "the US promotional" companies are understood to comprise Paramount, Franklin,
World Coin and Italcambio. Other, smaller companies exist. Although
only Franklin has its registered office in the US, their operations
reveal certain similarities and are based substantially on the North
American market. The similarities in the activities of Paramount, Franklin and World Coin are not surprising since the companies appear to be in association (to a degree not yet determined), possibly because
they regard direct competition as damaging. For instance, in its
contracts with both the Cayman Islands and the Solomon Islands, World
Coin reserves the right to assign to Franklin and/or Paramount its
obligations under the agreement. of the ten countries covered by the
survey, five have contracted exclusively with US promotional companies,
and three exclusively with either Spink and Son or the Royal Mint. Bermuda alone has used the services of more than one promotional company
(see Annex 4).
Duration
8.2(1) With one exception (Bermuda), every territory contracted to
a non-UK company is committed to grant to the company exclusive rights
for the promotion, production, marketing, distribution, etc., of
numismatic coins outside the country of issue for period in excess of
one year. Although it often happens that a territory concludes a
one-year contract for the issue of a specific coin (e.g., commemoration
of Silver Wedding, Silver Jubilee, etc.) this is generally in the
framework of, or complementary to, a five-year agreement for the
production of proof sets of the circulatory coinage. In most cases
there is a commitment to sanction annual issues of such proof sets, and
where there is no actual written undertaking it appears that in
practice coins are issued annually.
8.2(2)
In the case of those territories dealing with Spinks and
the Royal Mint there is no formal contract as such, but the agreement depends upon an exchange of letters. There is no commitment to issue
coins at regular intervals and each individual proposal is judged on
its merits.