SILVER COINAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 8

SILVER COINAGE.

The present discussion on the minting of a silver coinage for New Zealand raises some very interesting points. If it is true that we have to buy silver coin at the rate of 25/ per £ sterling, and that the Government sells it in this country at 20/, the advantage, especially a(; the present rate of exchange, of minting a silver coinage for this country is-obvious, A half-crown weighs almost exactly half an ounce. Imperially minted half-crowns are now stamped from an alloy which contains onlv 50 per cent silver. A half-crown, therefore at present contains one quarter of an ounce of silver, at a present market price of roughly 1/8. Thus the coin which is legal tender for the sum of 2/6 contains about 5d worth of silver, and no doubt could be manufactured for 10d; then the Government, instead of buying 20/ worth of silver at 5/ more than its - face value, should be able to buy £3 worth of silver for 20/. This, of course, sounds too gloriously like money for nothing, almost, to be true, but nevertheless it must to some extent represent the actual position. Why, therefore, are there no provisions in the bill brought down last session to empower the Minister of Finance to mint this proposed money in New Zealand? If, as quoted in the Press recently, Mr. Walter Nash, M.P., vainly raised this point in the House., during the debate on the bill in question, why did not the Minister of Finance agree to a widening of the scope of the particular clause which empowered him actually to get the minting done ? In other words, why did the Minister of Finance not leave the matter open so that the question of minting in New Zealand could be given consideration ? After all, if we are goin<r to have our own minted money, why should wo not go thoroughly into the question of minting it ourselves? CURRENCY.