Warning To Coin Hoarders

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31231, 1 December 1966, Page 22

Warning To Coin Hoarders

<( Thg Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, November 30.

It is a great pity that many people particularly elderly people, are to be grievously disappointed over their coin hoarding ventures, says Mr E. J. Arlow a Wellington numismatist.

“Most of the coins the public have carefully laid away have been rejected by a multitude of itinerant dealers, as well as having run the gauntlet of hundreds of interested bank officials who know a good quality coin when they see one,” he says. Writing in a recent issue of the “New Zealand Numismatic Journal,” Mr Arlow says thousands have been

searching for coins for years in which there have been no Huntings at all. Added to this has been the usual gullibility associated with anything about which the purchasers have little knowledge.

“There has been a remarkable display of public interest in New Zealand recently in that at least 50 per cent of the population have joined the ranks of coin collectors,” says Mr Arlow. “This arose primarily from the decision to introduce decimal coinage in 1967, and when the Treasury announced it would call in all halfcrowns for melting down, the public became aware that the low minting years of these half-crowns were commanding a premium over face value. “This premium commenced at double face value and then gradually rose to fantastic figures. When the general public started collecting sets

of half-crowns, their interest soon extended to all the other denominations, with the result that low-mintage coins commenced to sky-rocket. “This was followed by the ambition of the multitude of ‘coin c»llectors’ to aim for complete sets of every New Zealand coin. This entails the collection of 185 coins (excluding the Waitangi Crown) the total face value of which is only £8 2s lOd. “When the value is worked out on what has had to be paid for the key coins, then ultimately finding buyers overseas, there are going to be many disappointed ‘coincollectors.’ “In addition to local com-

petition Australian buyers or speculators have been eagerly seeking our coins also, but fortunately New Zealanders generally have not been bitten by the same bug for Australian coins. “When India and South Africa reverted to decimal coinage, the discarded coins in those countries did not command any premium from overseas collectors, and there is no foundation for assuming that New Zealand and Australian coins will provide any exception,” says Mr Arlow.

“From 1933 to 1965 New Zealand minted 463,000,000 coins, so there can be no scarcity demand to be expected from overseas collectors.”