The central bank yesterday unveiled a set of Chinese zodiac commemorative coins for the Year of the Ox, which are available to order online through Wednesday next week or at Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) branches nationwide from Jan. 21.
The central bank plans to sell 100,000 sets of the coins, with each set consisting of one silver coin weighing 1 ounce (28.3g) with a face value of NT$100 and one copper-alloy coin with a face value of NT$10.
A set costs NT$1,800, it said.
Photo: CNA
The silver coin’s obverse side has a gold-plated image of an ox and the reverse bears an image of the lion dance festival in Kaohsiung’s Cianjhen District (前鎮), the central bank said.
The lion dance carries not only unique local characteristics, but also has the symbolic meaning of disaster and epidemic prevention in a world that has been largely turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, Issuance Department Director-General Shih Tsuen-hua (施遵驊) told a news conference in Taipei.
The copper-alloy coin bears an image of an ox on its obverse side, while the reverse side has a lily pad, the central bank said.
The central bank started issuing Chinese zodiac commemorative coin sets in 2017 for the Year of the Rooster.
The bank last year sold 110,000 sets for the Year of the Rat.
The reduction of 10,000 sets for this year’s sale target reflects the central bank’s estimation of demand, Shih said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San