Opinion of the European Central Bank of 9 January 2008 at the request of the German Ministry of Finance on a draft law consolidating federal law within the field of competence of the Ministry of Finance and amending the Law on coins (CON/2008/3)
Date: 2008-01-09
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Germany, issuing of currency, money, national law

EN 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 9 January 2008 

at the request of the German Ministry of Finance 

on a draft law consolidating federal law within the field of competence of the Ministry of 

Finance and amending the Law on coins 

(CON/2008/3) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On  27 November 2007  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  German  Federal 

Ministry  of  Finance  (hereinafter  the  ‘Ministry  of  Finance’)  for  an  opinion  on  a  draft  law  consolidating 

federal  law  within  the  field  of  competence  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance  and  amending  the  Law  on  coins 

(hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 

The  ECB’s  competence  to  deliver  an  opinion  is  based  on  Article 105(4)  of  the  Treaty  establishing  the 

European  Community  and  the  second  indent  of  Article 2(1)  of  Council  Decision 98/415/EC  of 

29 June 1998  on  the  consultation  of  the  ECB  by  national  authorities  regarding  draft  legislative 
provisions1, as the draft regulation relates to means of payment. In accordance with the first sentence of 

Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the ECB, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 

1.  

Purpose of the draft law 

The draft law repeals a number of obsolete federal laws and amends the Law on coins. The amendments 

to the Law on coins empowers the Ministry of Finance to adopt regulations implementing Commission 

Recommendation 2005/504/EC of 27 May 2005 concerning authentication of euro coins and handling of 
euro coins unfit for circulation2. § 9a(1) of the draft law provides that the Ministry of Finance may, with 

the consent of the Deutsche Bundesbank, adopt a regulation concerning fee structures for the replacement 

of  euro  coins  which  are  unfit  for  circulation,  and  that  such  fee  structures  should  be  in  line  with 

Recommendation 2005/504/EC § 9a(2) of the draft law also empowers the Ministry of Finance, with the 

consent  of  the  Deutsche  Bundesbank,  to  adopt  a  regulation  dealing  with  the  sorting,  packaging  and 

labelling of euro coins which are unfit for circulation. 

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2  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
OJ L 184, 15.7.2005, p. 60. 

 
 
 
 
 
                                        
2.   General observations 

2.1  The ECB welcomes the draft law which will align German legislation with the harmonised rules of 

Recommendation  2005/504/EC.  The  draft  law  is  therefore  a  further  step  towards  achieving 

common standards for the treatment by national central banks in the euro area of euro coins which 

are unfit for circulation. The ECB also welcomes that § 9a of the draft law requires the consent of 

the  Deutsche  Bundesbank  for  the  adoption  of  the  implementing  regulations,  since  the  Deutsche 

Bundesbank  is  responsible  for  replacing,  sorting  and  packaging  euro  coins  which  are  unfit  for 

circulation. 

2.2  The  ECB  notes  that  § 9a(2)  of  the  draft  law  does  not  explicitly  provide  that  the  implementing 

regulation  concerning  the  sorting,  packaging  and  labelling  of  euro  coins  which  are  unfit  for 

circulation should accord with Recommendation 2005/504/EC. In contrast, § 9a(1) of the draft law 

expressly  requires  this  of  the  implementing  regulation  on  fee  structures.  The  ECB  therefore 

recommends the inclusion of a reference to Recommendation 2005/504/EC in § 9a(2) of the draft 

law  if  it  is  also  intended  for  the  implementing  regulation  on  sorting,  packaging  and  labelling  to 

comply with Recommendation 2005/504/EC. 

2.3  The ECB notes that the draft law deletes the reference to the Federal cash offices (‘Bundeskassen’) 

in § 3(1) and in the first sentence of § 8 of the Law on coins, which reflects the fact that the Federal 

cash offices no longer handle cash. 

2.4  The draft law contains further technical amendments on which the ECB has no comments. 

This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 9 January 2008. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Jean-Claude TRICHET 

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