Three-sided coin gets people thinking about ethical and sustainable banking

Sometimes, a coin is just a coin, something that you need to pay for things and to actually live. Sometimes, it can also be something that can make you think about other things, like how that item you’re holding can have an effect on things like society and maybe even the planet in general. Normally, coins and money are all about consumerism but it can also go beyond that. And also, it can look unique enough and pretty enough to warrant a conversation.

Designer: Bonka Circus

A communications agency in Belgium has helped local bank Vdk to create the world’s first three-sided coin that is not just heads and tail but also have another side to it. It’s not an actual coin but something that is more decorative and commemorative, although they did have the approval of the National Bank of Belgium and the European Central Bank. It has the one-euro design on one side of it but again, it doesn’t have any monetary value. But it does represent what the bank stands for which is to get Belgians thinking about choosing “for themselves, the region, and the planet”.

The result is pretty similar to an actual euro coin but with three sides to it, looking a bit similar to a ring although there’s no hole in which to wear it. The idea from the bank was to “triple your thinking” and this metaphor was translated into the coin. This was also a collaborative effort A 3D studio converted the design, milling experts made a mold, a gold and silversmith polished and gilded them in a gold bath then turned it into the three-sided creation we now see.

As part of vdk bank’s vision on sustainable and ethical banking, this coin will initially be given to bank employees. Supposedly, it will also be launched later this year in the French-speaking part of the country. It’s a pretty nice trinket to have and maybe also get people to start really thinking about how they do their banking and what effect it will have on the world around them.

The post Three-sided coin gets people thinking about ethical and sustainable banking first appeared on Yanko Design.

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Pac-Man Procrastination Power Maze Safe: Gobble Dots to Withdraw Cash

Do you need a place to keep your money safe? Perhaps you’d like a safe that is also a game? Well, check this out. The Pac-Man: Procrastination Power Maze Safe is a miniature bank that is also a Pac-Man game.

Let Pac-Man keep your coins safe and sound while you do some retro gaming. No quarters needed. This is even more old school than an arcade cabinet. You just move the box around, moving the ball bearing through the maze. That yellow sphere is Pac-Man. When you move him through the maze to the designated spot, you can open it up and get your money. Then, of course, you can spend that money on more cool Pac-Man merch. This is a great way to save your money.

I love seeing the maze as a cube – that could have been a cool sequel, where you enter a different side of the cube when you leave the sides of the maze. This bank makes a great gift for retro gamers, and is an officially licensed Pac-Man product. Aside from helping you save your money, it is also a great bit of geek decor. It may not play the Pac-Man theme, but it looks awesome.

Collect your money, play the game and spend your cash. The circle is complete.

Apple’s latest product/service is designed to disrupt the banking industry

I’ll just list a few features that Jennifer Bailey, the VP of Apple Pay, had to say about Apple’s latest offering… Apple Card. Designed to be the most efficient, useful, transparent, financially beneficial, and well-designed thing to happen to the banking industry, Apple Card is both a physical and digital credit card for Apple users to make payments through. The card works universally, encrypting all your payments and related data, it records all your transactions in a way that’s more easy to understand than looking at your bank statements and trying to figure out where the hell you spent all your money, it breaks down all your payments into easy-to-understand blocks, and even uses map data to remind you where you made what payment. The card works all your life and never expires, it allows you to make credit payments in a way that helps you save on interest, Apple doesn’t charge late fees on your bill payments, ever, and even does you the benefit of giving you a 2-3% cashback on all your transactions… ALL of them. Signing up for the Apple Card takes all of 10 minutes, unlike banks that require days to process your applications, and the card service can be used internationally without incurring any international fees. In every way, this is Apple saying that it cares about its customers and promises to do good by them, and is pretty much a mic-drop moment for Apple as it transitions from products to services. The card resides within your phone, and can be used anywhere Apple Pay would… but in the event that you’re required to make a payment at a place that doesn’t support Apple Pay, Apple even supplies its users with a solid titanium credit card. Designed to be used all your life, the card is simplistic, and has your name etched into it. No card number, no CVV, no expiration date, and no signature. It’s literally the iPod of credit cards…

Apple Card comes as a result of Apple’s collaboration with Goldman Sachs on the banking front, and with MasterCard on the tech-enabled payments front. With how popular Apple Pay has become over the past few years, Apple finally thought it was time to show banks how it should be done. Apple Card as an interface is incredibly intuitive. Rather than listing down various irrelevant details, it organizes all your payments data in a way that’s expected of Apple. The interface is absolutely beautiful, and Apple’s littered it with a whole bunch of incredible features, including payments that are secured using TouchID or FaceID, encrypted payments that don’t even allow Apple to know what you’re buying, where you’re buying it from, and how much you’re buying it for, along with a cashback rewards system that’s instantaneous. With every transaction you make using the digital Apple Card, you get 2% of it as cashback (actual cash that you can use as money, or send to friends as payments), while using the physical Apple Card yields a 1% cashback reward.

With over a billion users across the world, Apple’s card service is an instant feature that helps you make any payment, anywhere, anyhow, just with your smartphone. Designed to provide value to its users, Apple even promises to provide lower-than-usual interest rates. The card service, in return, will never expire, will yield rewards, will be internationally compatible, will never incur late fees… and perhaps the most important part of this entire experience, will remain absolutely secure and private… even from Apple.

Designer: Apple

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