We investigate the following version of the circle covering problem in strictly convex (normed or) Minkowski planes: to cover a circle of largest possible diameter by $k$ unit circles. In particular, we study the cases $k=3$, $k=4$, and $k=7$. For $k=3$ and $k=4$, the diameters under consideration are described in terms of side-lengths and circumradii of certain inscribed regular triangles or quadrangles. This yields also simple explanations of geometric meanings that the corresponding homothety ratios have. It turns out that basic notions from Minkowski geometry play an essential role in our proofs, namely Minkowskian bisectors, $d$-segments, and the monotonicity lemma.

We prove that for every $k>1$, there exist $k$-fold coverings of the plane (i) with strips, (ii) with axis-parallel rectangles, and (iii) with homothets of any fixed concave quadrilateral, that cannot be decomposed into two coverings. We also construct for every $k>1$ a set of points $P$ and a family of disks $\cal D$ in the plane, each containing at least $k$ elements of $P$, such that, no matter how we color the points of $P$ with two colors, there exists a disk $D\in{\cal D}$ all of whose points are of the same color.

A lower bound on the number of points that can be placed in a square of side $\sigma$ such that no two points are within unit distance from each other is proven. The result is constructive, and the series of packings obtained contains many conjecturally optimal packings.