Decimal Coins

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30413, 11 April 1964, Page 18

Decimal Coins

The best thing about the decimal coins that will be put into circulation three years hence is that the smaller cent will be much more convenient than the present clumsy penny. Otherwise, the decisions made so far show a lack of originality. The Government has approved the issue of pieces representing one, two, five, 10 and 20 cents, has reprieved the existing halfpenny (as a half-cent of anomalous size), and has not decided on the issue of a 25-cent or a 50-cent piece. Initially, there will be six or seven coins in circulation; at present there are seven. Because 5-cent, 10-cent and 20-cent pieces will be of the same size and value as the sixpence, shilling, and florinin the present currency, confusion during the conversion will be minimised; but that seems to be the only argument for persisting with unsuitable sizes. For some years the halfpenny may occasionally be mistaken for a 10-cent piece, as it now is for a shilling, but not for long. Inflation has already doomed the halfpenny. A more permanent cause of confusion will be the almost identical dimensions of the one-cent and 5-cent pieces, although the bronze one-cent piece will presumably have a plain rim and the 5-cent piece a milled rim. However, the similarity of size could have been avoided. Is a 2-cent piece really necessary? A bronze cent larger than the 5-cent piece and smaller than the 10-cent piece would have been readily distinguishable from either. The decimalisation of the coinage is expected to be the first step towards ultimate decimalisation of weights and measures. In New Zealand this end could have been hastened if the first decimal coins had been measured and weighted in convenient decimal units. That will not be done. In the present currency, 5s worth of silver, of whatever denominations, weighs an ounce; in the new currency 50 cents will weigh an ounce, or .03527 grams. The present halfpenny is exactly one inch in diameter, but the other coins are of odd sizes. Coins ranging from 10 millimetres to 25 millimetres in diameter would have been more sensible. Perhaps the mistakes in denominations, dimensions, and weights will be redeemed by the design of the new coins. The stranger’s first contact with a new country is often handling its currency, which may impress, prejudice, or mislead him. Is the New Zealand national “ image ”, as portrayed on its coins, favourable, or even realistic? Is it really a country of extinct native birds and anachronistic native warriors? Some symbols more appropriate to twentieth-century New Zealand, such as a Corriedale sheep and the new Parliament Building, could be found for the new coins. The Government might well hold a competition for the designs.