Indian steel will be used to make Euro coins. Jindal Stainless, the countryâs largest stainless steel making outfit, has secured an order to supply coin blanks to Monnaie De Paris, the French national mint. France, according to 2002 data, produces some 7.5 billion, 15% of the total Euro coins in circulation. Coins are made using various alloys of metals like nickel, copper and zinc. The metals, in appropriate composition, are melted in furnaces, cast into ingots and passed through rolling mills to reduce them into strips. These strips are fed into high-speed punch presses to be converted into coin blanks, also known as planchets of appropriate diameter. Coin blanks go through the process of being cleaned, processed further metallurgically and imprinted to result in coins for circulation. In itself, coin making is a niche just opening up for business for stainless steel makers around the world. SAIL officials point out that âuntil 2003-4 the Salem Steel Plant has supplied about 33,000 tonnes of coin blanks and 24,000 tonnes of stainless steel strips to the four Indian government mints.â? Jindal Stainless already supplies AISI 430 grade ferritic stainless steel and cupro nickel coils to the government.
