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Ambassador Carlos Westendorp. High Representative OHR Dear Ambassador, I would like to draw to your attention the position the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently in with regard to the production of low denomination coins for Bosnia and Herzegovina. These coins are urgently needed as the only low denomination coins currently circulating in the country are German coins and they are in short supply. The practices in the market place are neither to adjust the quantity of the goods being bought or to give change in bubble gum or chocolate. The CBBH Law did not allow the CBBH to introduce coins if the paper currency was coupons. You will recall that you decided earlier this year that the KM banknotes we introduced in June and July would not be called coupons, a decision which I agreed with and which opened the way for us to introduce coins. We sent out tender documents to five Mints in August asking for proposals to mint 10F, 20F, and 50F coins. All five Mints sent proposals by our deadline of 8 September. The Governing Board of the CBBH considered the tender proposals at a meeting of 14 September and selected the Royal Mint of the UK as the successful tenderer. I advised the Royal Mint of the decision on 15 September and sent them a draft contact on 17 September. I met with the Royal Mint in London on 18 September and we agreed the contract details and jointly signed the contract. One of the criteria we used for selecting successful tenderer was the speed with which they could have the coins minted and delivered to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Royal Mint has agreed in the contract to a very tight delivery schedule. They will send sample coins to the CBBH within four weeks of the contract being signed and dispatch the first shipment of 10 and 20F within three weeks of my approval of the sample. This schedule would have the first coins being delivered to the CBBH in Sarajevo in early November 1998 and the complete order of 70 million coins would be delivered by the end of 1998. The problem is that this timetable is specifically based (in the contract) on the assumption that "the designs are provided promptly to the Royal Mint". The Mint can not start to prepare the sample coins until they have a design. A delay in providing designs will delay the arrival of the coins in BiH by at lease as long as the design delays. The delay could be even longer as the Royal Mint advised me that they will get very busy in November and December with design and production work for their regular customers with 1999 coins. In terms of the CBBH Law, "the design of banknotes and coins shall be decided by the Governing Board with the approval of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina." (Article 42). The Governing Board of the CBBH agreed on a set of designs at their meeting on 13 August, 1998 and I sent those designs to the members of the Presidency shortly thereafter and asked each of them to signify their agreement by signing and returning our memorandum. The Governing Board adopted a single, simple design for the coins. It included only the name CBBH in Latin and Cyrillic, the denomination of the coin and the date. It had no state symbols and few design elements. Its aim was to be unexceptional and uncontroversial. Your staff has a copy of those designs. We have had no response from any members of the Presidency on the designs we submitted to them prior to the election. I have been sent a set of designs prepared by OHR. These designs include an outline of the map of BiH and part of the flag. They are also artistically superior to the design the CBBH submitted to the Presidency. They include the elements that I regard as important the even handed use of both Latin and Cyrillic, the name of the country, the denomination clearly set out and the date. I showed those designs to my Governing Board members at our meeting on 14 September but we did not formally discuss their adoption. However, two of the three members said at that time that they had no objection to those designs, they just wanted an early decision, and the third expressed no opinion. Since that meeting, the two Federation Board members have told me that they would support the OHR design. I have not had a chance to discuss it with the RS member of the Board, but he has a copy of the OHR design. The Presidency did not take a decision on the designs prior to the election and it is likely to be some time before the Presidency is in a position to discuss the issue. This is a problem and could lead to a long delay in the introduction of the coins. I therefore request that you use the powers of your office to make a decision on the designs. The CBBH position is that we want the coins to be put into circulation as soon as possible as we would be happy to work with either the design submitted to the Presidency or the one prepared by your office. Informally, it seems that three of the four members of the CBBH Board now have a preference for the OHR design. I would be happy to discuss this issue with you or your staff. Yours sincerely,
Peter Nicholl
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