HALFPENNIES IN DEMAND

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 124, 19 February 1941, Page 6

HALFPENNIES IN DEMAND

Causes Of Shortage

PRICE FIXATION AND THE WAR

Finely-adjusted prices for everyday commodities and difficulty in securing coin from the Royal Mint lieeause of the war were principal reasons advanced by bank and Treasury officials yesterday for the shortage of halfpennies experienced iu the last few mouths. It was also suggested that the illegal export of bronze coin might be continuing to some extent. To help Io meet the shortage one Wellington department store has for some time displayed a notice offering to change customers’ halfpennies for coins of other denominations. Interviewed yesterday, an official ot this firm said that the shortage was particularly acute about Christmas time, and caused some embarrassment, as the price of many lines included a halfpenny. Though the position bad now eased, full requirements were still unobtainable. . . “We arc scratching along fairly well.” said the manager of another store. He added that his firm had collected a fairly large reserve of halfpennies before Christmas to meet the demand.

Confirmation of the fact that a shortage still exists was given by a bank official. "We frequently have to refuse requests from customers for supplies,” he said. A rationing system was in operation. An official of another bank said that clients bad been asked to keep their demands as low as possible. Rationing of customers bad not been found necessary, but strangers could not always be supplied. The opinion was expressed that the shortage was largely the result of price fixation. Many commodities In general use, bread and tobacco among them, now sold at so much and a halfpenny.

This view was endorsed by a Reserve Bank official. Asked why additional supplies of the coins were not imported he said: “Because there’s n war on and they’re hard to get." A Treasury official said that, because of tlte war, there had been some delay in obtaining fulfilment of orders.

He also suggested that perhaps some bronze coin was still being illegally exported from New Zealand for a profit on the exchange. "If that is not so, where the halfpennies go is a mystery,” he said. "The life of a coin is 25 years.”