The last week was exam week and we didn't have group meeting but I'm going to tell you some things about the last group meeting, the steering group meeting and the main events during these almost two weeks.

Firstly, we have accorded to change the working style. Now we are going to work in smaller groups and only some of use are focused in each part of the work. During the general meetings, held on Thuersdays yet, we are going to present to the other the advances made by each group during the last week, we are going to take the necessary decisions to the work of the next week and we are going to discuss the next meeting agenda.

Later, each group has explained their advances during the last week:
-Markko have told that the strontium aluminate applied as a paint is the most commun form to give phosphorescence to the objects. He would try to purchase the paint in a hobby store.
-Jani has explained that the best form to validate the coins is the current method based on the electromagnetic field of the metals.
-Antti has told that the self cleaning product is avaliable as a paint too and that it is able to be applied outwardly to the coin with whatever design or material.
-Heikki was the responsible of the transparent materials of the coin and he has stated that the best material is probably polycarbonate, despite of its poor wear resistance, because other polymers present problems like bad recyclibility and the ceramics are very fragile.
-I have spoken to the others about the metallic materials for our coin. We have accorded that the silver is maybe the best option due to its nice appearence and maleability and ductility. Another option, if the silver is too expensive could be cupronickel which is already used in manufacturing coins.
-Finally, Simo and Mirva have told us that the normal LED lights are the best option to our coin since they can work with a little amount of energy and because they are really cheap while the OLED light are expensive and hard to made. Simo showed us a nice product out of the LED's to see the brightness and we have accorded to put in the coin blue (and maybe white) LED lights which have around 200 mcd.

To close the meeting we have decided to make 2 different prototypes to the seminar in Mint, one of them with LED lights (scale 1:3) and another one without LED lights but with the correct final size.

The next day(Friday) we had the steering group meeting where we explained to the Mint guys and to the teachers all our progress and decisions. Tuoppi seems really excited with our design and he gave us some useful piece of advices.

Everything looks nice but during the week a big problem have emerged. Jani and Ari went to Mint to have a meeting with Tuoppi and one of the Mint's designers told Ari that the his design should be modified to be able to be manufactured, so the the manufacturing process can't start yet and we have only two weeks until the seminary!
By the other hand the paints to give to the coin phosphorescence and self-cleaning surface could e purchased soon. Tomorrow we have the group meeting, let's see how we work under pressure!

-Pedro

This week’s Thursday we faced the first big choices during our project. We had to decide that which ideas we came up during last month, were good and usable enough to implement in an actual concept coin. When we started to go through our ideas I think we were first a little too critical against our thoughts. Almost none of the ideas seemed useful. However, after we discussed and considered our most promising ideas for a while, we came up six great features that we are going to try to attach in our concept coin:

1. OLED / LED – light. Lights would give shining and standout appearance to the coin and make it easier to differentiate the coins from others. Lights might also go around the coin's outer circle so that the coin could also be used to follow time.
2. Validation of the coin based on the wave length of lights.
3. Glowing materials. Those materials are UV-active so the coin would shine in the dark after exposed to daylight. The coin might also be used to follow the amounts of UV-radiation, so you would know when it's time to leave the beach without burning your skin.
4. Self-cleaning surface. Based on our survey coins are considered to be dirty. This coating would ensure the cleanliness of the coin and make it even antibacterial.
5. Material selections. Middle part of the coin needs to be transparent that there is some use of the lights. Outer layer will be some metal alloy.
6. Form of the coin. Our design specialist Ari got a great idea about the outlook of the coin. It would be circle or slightly oval with eccentric transparent centre. This would provide fresh look to the coin and also ensure more use to the coin than just for trading.

Now we have finally gone through our planning face and are starting to make our ideas concrete in the form of the concept coin. In the end of the day I can say that if we’ll be able to attach the features above to our coin, the outcome will definitely be great!

-Heikki

Group photo

Here is a group photo of our project team. Team members from left to right: Heikki, Ari, Antti, Simo, Jani, Marko, Mirva and Pedro.

Coin 2020 - Thinking About Your Coins

-Simo

Project news – Decisions and more technology research

Last week we had the brainstorming session with the project group. We gathered a lot of nice ideas and chose the top ten ideas for technology study. In today’s meeting we compiled the results of the investigations together. It was time to decide what ideas really are respectable in coins and what ideas are possible, at least, essentially. After careful consideration we decided to discard some ideas, like Braille dot writing (small target group and being outdated), screen and sound in coins (proved too difficult with today’s technology and in this schedule). We will continue developing ideas of new coin materials, surface treatment with uncommon characteristics, electronics in coin, customization features and new additional applications for coins. Next week, we will decide what exactly we are beginning to develop – what is our suggestion for the coin of 2020.

-Simo

Learning session - Expressing expertise

In today’s APD learning session we have nice subject. The aim was to learn about expressing own expertise. We used drawing as a learning method. Everyone drew own poster that illustrates their own expertise and other capabilities for project. After drawing everyone presented their own posters and oneself as an expert. Other group members added own comments and other noticed capabilities to the posters using post-its. Here you can view our posters. Images can be enlarged by clicking.

-Simo

Brainstorming session

Hello everybody!
After visiting the Mint of Finland we had a very interesting brainstorming session with the group. It's not too common in Otaniemi to use brainstorming as a learning method but our industrial designer Ari taught us well. We all had to bring 3 or more pictures that inspired us. Pictures were about tecnological innovations or about something we held dear to our hearts. During the brainstorming we circuled the pictures around the table and tried to find new wild ideas about the coin of 2020. I think our brainstorming went wery well. We gathered a huge amount of ideas and it was quite easy to continue developing them.
When you are innovating, it's important to remember to accept all ideas. It was very hard for me at least to not to think about financial restrictions and things like that. Even the silliest ideas are welcome. It's only after the brainstorming, when we start to investigate the possibilities to make a coin from the idea.
We gathered ten of the most interesting ideas together and agreed to find information about them before next thursday. I'm really looking foward on that. It will be exciting to hear what new technologies to make a coin this group will find!

-Mirva

Visit to the throne room: excursion to the Mint of Finland

Yesterday we got a chance to visit the Mint of Finland and actually
see how the coins we use everyday are being produced. The visit
started with a quick presentations by our hosts Tuomas and Henna. The
Mint of Finland is a nordic company which history goes all the way to
995 which is more than one thousand years behind - quite old, huh? In
Finland the production of coins started in 1860 when Alexander II gave
the finns their own money.

The visit itself was very educating and entertaining. It's really
surprising what the guys and girls at Mint can do! If you want a
special coin for yourself they can do everything from the scratch to
the final product and they will do it well. It will probably cost you
a lot, if they find room from the production line in the first place:
the Mint of Finland produced more than 1 billion coins last year so
you can imagine that they have their hands full of coins already.

The making of coins is all about precision. All the details and
markings need to be just right otherwise the coin has a good chance of
failing the quality checks. In circulation coins there can perhaps be
small dots or markings in them but, believe us when we say, the
collector coins are all carefully checked through. The people checking
those coins were so good on spotting possible faults that our
untrained eyes were totally unable to spot any mistakes in the coins
that failed the Q.C.

The security there was one thing that our eyes were able to catch
though. You wouldn't want to try to get in just by yourself and they
were quite strict on photographs also - that's why you won't be able
to see here all the details we were shown. During the visit we were
able to see some really secret stuff also but our mouths are totally
shut by the promise of secrecy, so no need for asking. All this makes
a perfect sense - after all they are making money over there!

Got interested in the coin making? Visit the Mint of Finland's web
page for more information on just about anything related to coins and
making of them. The link can be found on the sidebar at the right side
of this blog. Also feel free to comment to this post at anytime and by
doing so perhaps send some questions to the people at Mint as they
will be watching us closely ;)

-Jani