Decimal System COINAGE CHANGE-OVER IN SOUTH AFRICA

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29378, 3 December 1960, Page 10

Decimal System COINAGE CHANGE-OVER IN SOUTH AFRICA

Conversion Of Union’s 150,000 Machines [South African Information Service]* r pHE conversion to the decimal system of the 150,000 monetary machines in the Union of South Africa is already in progress. Priority is being given to the banks’ requirements because they will all start operating in the new units on February 14, 1961, the professional adviser to the Decimalisation Board, Dr. B. Wiehahn, revealed recently. All the machines will probably have been converted in September, with the result that until then South Africa will have a dual coinage system, he said.

Publicity costing £30,000 to be undertaken in the next few months will ensure that all parts of the population are familiar with the new coinage system on the day of the change-over. Dr. Wiehahn said that mining companies, industrial firms, commercial banks and shops will be asked to co-operate in this campaign. Shortly before D-day pamphlets wiU be sent to every address in the Union of South Africa, while the radio and the country’s 6000 schools will also assist in the campaign. By far the most complex problem in changing the country’s currency to Rand/cents, Dr. Wiehahn •writes in an article in the “Rand Daily Mail.” is the conversion or replacement of the monetary machines. Major Operation Fortunately, most of the machines can be mechanically changed to work in Rand/cents, but this in itself is a major operation. he adds. Each machine, no matter where it is in use in the Union of South Africa or in South-west Africa, will have to be fetched, dismantled. cleaned, fitted with the new decimal parts and reassembled, tested and returned to its owner as a decimal machine. (In the meantime, a decimal machine lent by the converting company will have been doing its job. In many cases the user’s staff will have had to be specially trained to operate the decimal machine.) Some machines, though too old to be converted still have some years of useful life before they need to be scrapped. Because they cannot be used for decimals, however, they will have to be replaced with new machines. The Decimal Coinage Act authorises the Government, through the Decimalisation Board, to bear a large proportion of these costs. As has already- been announced, the board will, to this end. make two types of compensation payments. It wtll in the first place pay conversion compensation to cover

the cost of mechanically changing these machines which are considered to be worth converting, because they fall within certain defined age limits. Ages Of Machines In the second place, again within fixed age limits, the board willl pay replacement compensation in cash in respect of machines which are regarded as too old for satisfactory conversion but which have not been in use for the full period of their respective average normal lives. The category into which a particular machine falls is determined exclusively by its age. Thus cash registers, adding machines and accounting machines are deemed to have an average normal life of 20 years, 15 years and 10 years respectively, writes Dr. Wiehahn.