SORTING SILVER COINAGE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25589, 2 September 1948, Page 3

SORTING SILVER COINAGE

big job for banks AUSTRALIAN MONEY CALLED IN (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 1 task °f sorting all the silver coinage m the country. his task has been Austrn'iffo' 11 by t Jj. e de Prec-ation of the ft ,lF? llan solns5 olns through the alteration exchange rate, but the survey ts also being made to serve the larger purpose of separating the new cupronickel coins that were introduced just before last Christmas from the previ°UmuCOins of lar £ er silver content. The percentage of Australian silver in circulation here is very small, considerably less than 1 per cent., and the accountant of one bank said the search of about £lB,OOO worth of coins was producing about £5O of Australian money. Tellers have to be continually on the alert for them as they are passed in with masses of silver. They are being withdrawn from circulation and will probably be held at the disposal of the Reserve Bank. Stocks aeld before the exchange rate was changed have had to be frozen. Australian coins are not legal tender in New Zealand. When cupro-nickel coins were introduced it was intended that they should eventually replace all existing silver and steps to effect this change have been hastened by the necessity for withdrawing all Australian coins. A shipment of £126,000 worth of cupro-nickel coins came -.to Auckland last November, and all of this has not yet been put into circulation. A further large shipment is expected to arrive in seven or eight months’ time. After that the old silver will probably cease to be legal tender. In the meantime the silver coinage is being withdrawn as it comes into the possession of the banks. One Auckland bank has had a staff bf about 50 back every night working on the job. They hope to finish by the end of the week.