In the 1970s the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations initiated a panel of coins to "draw attention to the most important challenge of our time, that of providing food, training and work for a rapidly expanding world population". These coins had two purposes, to serve as daily reminders, over the period of a generation, of the national and international efforts needed to meet the challenge of world food development, and to provide, through seigniorage as funds to help finance such development. People buying these FAO coin panels were thus making a personal contribution toward tackling the challenge set by the programme.