COINAGE CHANGE £3 Million Profit Expected

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 12

COINAGE CHANGE £3 Million Profit Expected

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 18. The Government expects to make a profit of £3 million from the change-over to decimal coinage.

The undersecretary of Finance (Mr Muldoon) said in a luncheon address today that the costs of reforming the coinage system could be more than offset by profits realised on metal reclamation.

“We are planning the issue of much smaller bronze coins,” said Mr Muldoon, “and these will replace the existing large and heavy penny which costs more than its face value to mint. “From the 1100 tons of bronze in existing pennies, we shall realise sufficient to pay for all the replacement one cent coins, and make a profit well in excess of £lOO,OOO. Thus we shall be able to provide the public with a much more convenient coin and make a profit at the same time,” he said. Silver In Coins There still existed in our “silver” coinage a proportion of coins containing 50 per cent silver. These were coins dated before 1947. “The bulk of our ‘white’ coinage is an alloy of copper and nickel and is an economical alloy for higher-value coinage. “When we withdraw the half-crown next year, we shall be able to reclaim the silver

still existing in these coins. Allowing for the costs of replacement coinage, we anticipate a further profit on the silver in excess of £250,000,” Mr Muldoon said. Mr Muldoon said that it was the Government’s intention later, after decimal currency was introduced, to attempt to reclaim the silver in pre-1947 florins, shillings and sixpences and to replace these with more economical cupro-nickel decimal coins.

“In this operation we anticipate further profits of something over £1 million,” he said.

“A further advantage of these reforms is that after July, 1967, we shall make profits on our smaller bronze coins, on a permanent basis, whereas, at present, the heavier pennies are costing the taxpayer considerable sums of money each year. “The over-all effect of these reforms together with the normal profits of coinage issues in the coinage account, will be that by 1970 when we shall have settled down to the new coinage system, a profit of about £3 million will have accrued.

“This profit will go a long way towards covering the cost of introducing decimal currency, with all its benefits, into New Zealand,” Mr Muldoon said.