DOLLAR AND POUND ZONES

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30481, 1 July 1964, Page 15

DOLLAR AND POUND ZONES

(N.Z. Press Association) SYDNEY, June 30. Sydney will be temporarily divided into dollar and pound zones for shopping when decimal currency is introduced in 1966. No details of the zone areas have been disclosed, but shops in one city zone will be using dollars, while;'others in . adjoining zones still use pounds. The ' zoning will be necessary because all cash registers and ac- - count machines in the

city will not be converted in time to handle the change-over. The conversion of these machines will be done block by block. The managing director of a leading City department store, Mr Frank Munro, said today there would be great confusion unless the Decimal Cur-' rency Board quickly gives details of the proposed zoning. “Retailers who have branch stores are vitally affected,” he said. Mr Munro said that after decimal currency is

introduced on February 14, 1966, customers who pay their accounts by cheque.must make them out in dollars.

“A firm still operating with pound, skilling and pence accounting machines will have to convert these dollar.cheques for .their ledgers, then reconvert for banking,” he said.

Mr Munro suggested that pound notes of all denominations should be overprinted with their dollar values for the period they remained in '

circulation after the change-over. The £1 notes should have “two dollars,” the £5 note “10 dollars,” and £lO note “20 dollars” printed on the surface, said Mr Munro.

“This would greatly assist shop assistants and customers ' who can expect quite a good deal of confusion if precautions are not,taken,” he said.

Many customers would not be familiar enough with decimal currency to be able to convert quickly from pounds.