TO THE POINT...

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31412, 4 July 1967, Page 1

TO THE POINT...

One-cent and 2c coins are now available from trading banks for shopkeepers and others planning to trade immediately in dollars and cents. They will be available in minimum lots of $2 (£1) until the banks close tomorrow afternoon for two days. One city bank reported a good demand for the coins yesterday. It disposed of about $5OO worth. Another bank said the 1c and 2c coins were being made available only to customers changing to decimal currency on D.C. Day, and who had a genuine need for the coins. * * *

Concession cards bought before next Monday, D.C. Day, would be perfectly acceptable after July 10, said the general manager of the Christchurch Transport Board (Mr J. F. Fardell) yesterday. A direct

conversion was involved in the price of most concession tickets. He gave an assurance that decimal coins would be available on all buses from the time the first one began its run soon after 6 a.m. on Monday.

One city bank was yesterday issuing the following instructions on a card inserted in new cheque books: “On and after D.C. Day, all banking transactions are to be expressed in dollars and cents. The following examples are for your guidance—for amounts from 1 to 99 cents: six cents, $04)6 (use hyphen instead of decimal point), eighty nine cents, $O-89; dollars only: twenty-three dollars, $23-00; dollars and cents: fourteen dollars 02, $l4-02,

fifty-spven dollars 21 $57-21. Two figures must always follow the hyphen, and one or more figures must always appear between the $ symbol and the hyphen.” * * *

The sc, 10c and 20c pieces are all cupro-nickel as in present coins, and will correspond in size to the present 6d, shilling and florin. The 50c coin will be almost the size of the half-crown which has been withdrawn. Replacement of the half crown with a 50-cent demonination will provide a useful coin in change-giving.