Tarnished Coin Sets

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 1

Tarnished Coin Sets

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 3. Coin collectors are indignant over the quality of souvenir coin sets from the last complete New Zealand minting before the introduction of decimal currency.

They paid £2 for speciallypolished proof sets, worth 6s 4sd on face value, from the Royal Mint—and now find

that at least half the coins in most sets delivered so far are tarnished. Miss M. V. F. Mullett, of Kingsford road. Mount Eden, who has three sets, said: “At least five of the coins in each set have tarnish marks on them.

“These sets are supposed to , be specially selected and j polished, and should not have a mark on them," she said. “They are a collector’s item—-

if we had wanted ordinary coins we could have ordered sets for as little as 10s.” The coins, sealed in plastic envelopes, clearly show yellow or brown tarnish marks, sometimes on both sides. “Every set I have seen is the same,” said the president of the Numismatic Society of Auckland (Mr B. R. Williams) today. It looks as though

something has gone wrong at the Mint, since the marks all seem to be of the same sort and in the same place.

“When collectors are paying so much for these sets they expect them to be of the top quality. As far as I can see, nothing can be done about it—it would be a mistake to try to remove the marks, since proof coins should not be cleaned, or even

handled.” Mr Williams also criticised the packing of the coins, which he described as “shoddy, and not worthy of

our last set of coins before the change to decimal currency.”