80 Million Scarce Coins

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31522, 9 November 1967, Page 14

80 Million Scarce Coins

Every person in New Zealand still has 25 to 30 threepenny pieces: or so the statistics suggest. The Minister of Finance has reported that the banks have collected only a third of the S 3 million worth of threepences which were put into circulation from 1933 to 1967. Of the 125 million threepences minted, 80 million have not been returned: and that figure represents nearly 27 coins for each man. woman, and child of the population. Are we, then, a nation of coin collectors, of hoarders, each one gloating over his little store of obsolete coins? Are there, perhaps, many more of the scarce 1950 threepences (800,000 minted) —even of the rare 1935 threepences (40,364) —in existence than the dealers guessed? But perhaps the nation’s coin hoarders are women, not men: housewives who prudently put aside all their threepences before July 10 so that their families would still have the traditional threepenny in their Christmas puddings. Sixpences and five-cent pieces, the smallest silver coins now circulating, are larger than many people like to put in their Christmas puddings.

Perhaps virtually all the threepences were lost before July 10, 1967. Anyone who has searched for a threepence dropped in the sand at a beach, or watched a threepence slip through a gutter grating, will realise how elusive a threepenny bit can be. And anyone who thinks it scarcely creditable that nearly 80 million coins could have been lost over 30 years should ask if that is any more improbable than either of the propositions canvassed above.