"FROZEN ASSETS"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 11

"FROZEN ASSETS"

EXPOBT OF COINS

AND RATES OF EXCHANGE

"A Numismatist Abroad"' was the subject of a talk given recently by Mr. Allan Sutherland to members of the New Zealand Numismatic Society. During the course of it he had occasion to refer to the export of silver from New Zealand in spite of the regulations forbidding it and to the gen- | eral desire all over the world to obtain British coins.in preference to foreign currencies. "Leaving New Zealand six months ago," he said, "there was evidence of hoarding of Imperial silver to save exchange, for when we cleared Australian ports on the Home stretch, the chorus seemed to be 'Now is the lime to shell out,' and I heard of several . cases where bunks were piled with silver coins that had been secreted about the persons of the passengers until it was safe to bring them to light and enjoy the premium because of the Imperial inscription. In most cases this silver would be spent before the passengers reached England, but presumably the most of it came from New Zealand. New Zealand coins were freely accepted in Australia, for the most part, > and such coins that were not accepted soon found their way into slot machines and the automatic ticket boxes for the Manly Ferries. "One hears of English coins being shipped from New Zealand to London as 'frozen duck' and carried in the refrigerators—frozen assets—and also of the alleged practice of shipping gold coins to Australia in sand and oil in the oil tanks of motor-cycles, but I should imagine the largest amount was transported in money belts through Australia. However, the country must be practically drained dry now, and we can only muse on the ingenuity of smugglers and the truth of the old adage To'law stands betweei the merchant and his profitte.' "On overseas liners Home, the varying rates of British exchanges were often amusingly made apparent. When collecting entry fees for the''tote' on the ship's run, or for horse racing, British, Australian, and New Zealand coins were accepted at face value regardless, of exchange, and a passenger tendering a New Zealand half-crown in payment for 6d fee might receive a British florin in exchange which was worth almost the value of the original coin tendered —and yet a fee had been paid. But the dividends were paid out on the same basis, and Gresham's law soon began to operate—bad ' money drove out good, and British money was cornered by the more astute passengers. NATIVE MONEY—CHANGER WINS. "At Colombo the quantity of small coins handled gave one a sense of opulence, until the swarming touts and money-changers absorbed them at an alarming rate. On one occasion there I changed British money into Ceylon coins, and did not have occasion to use any of them, and when I went back to the same man to reconvert to British money I received nothing like the original amount, and when I remonstrated, the moneychanger dismissed me with a lofty air, and I was forced to realise that a 'Scotch' instinct was powerless against that of a native money-changer. ' "At Aden, Arabia', when " bum-boats laden with nativeI.'goods came alongside and purchases started per medium of a basket on a string, one of the first angry cries I heard came from a native boat-vender, 'Hi! You Mrs. Queen Mary! Hi! Hi! Australian money bad money—send down good English bobs!' Naturally the Australians became irate at such Impudence, but transactions always came back to the 'Good English Bobs' standard." Gibraltar, added Mr. Sutherland, was the only place on the voyage where one could tender coins of almost any country and receive change in the same currency. Being the key port of the Mediterranean Sea, which washes the shores of so many countries, it was only natural that Gibraltar would almost be a clearing house for almost all the coinages of the world. Spanish and English coins predominated there. \ DEPRECIATED N.Z. POUND. "In London, when dealing with larger amounts at the bank, the full effect of the depreciated New Zealand pound in relation to the English pound made itself painfully apparent. Many tourists declared that the net result of their trip was that they each provided a bonus of £ 1 per week for two New Zealand farmers for a year.' It was the habit of many Australians and New Zealanders to 'add a quarter' to everything they bought abroad: actually the exchange was only one-fifth, but they erred on the right side. One received much practice in mental arithmetic converting New Zealand money, through sterling, into foreign money."