THE 1914 PENNY

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 6

THE 1914 PENNY

NO GOLD IN IT

MINT TOO CAREFUL

"A fantastic and ridiculous story" was the description applied by Mr. H. R. Ford at a recent meeting of the New Zealand Numismatic Society to the persistent canard that pennies bearing the date 1914 are of a high value because of a supposedly. high gold content. Mr. Ford was lecturing on "The Identification and Valuation of Coins." , "The idea of the high gold content of the 1914 pennies," he said, "has arisen- from the fiction that either a gold ingot or a crucible of gold fell into a pot of molten bronze at the Royal Mint and the Royal Mint was calling in the pennies made therefrom to recover the lost gold! "A more fantastic and ridiculous story of the Royal Mint could hardly be imagined, as it is a highly organised factory turning out metal articles which happen to be coins that we use as a medium of exchange. To us who are conversant with factory organisation and know the necessary checking of raw materials —precious metals and base metals —issued to factory staffs, and the subsequent checking and viewing of ' the finished products, especially in the production of articles of gold and silver where every scrap of metal—the scissel cuttings, the floor sweepings, and the ft residue from the wash-hands—is collected and treated to recover the utmost particle of gold and silver as is done in the workshops of the . working jewellers and jewellery manufacturers throughout the world; to us it is unthinkable that such a mishap could ever occur at the Royal Mint because the gold and silver are melted,in a different department from the bronze, to keep the scrap residues of the precious metals separate from the base. "One story states that the 1914 pennies are worth over £7 apiece," said Mr. Ford. "Now a bronze penny in mint state weighs six-twentieths of an ounce, and if it were of solid gold throughout' and weighed six pennyweights then at the present price of gold it would be worth only £2, and actually it would be much thinner than a bronze penny because of the greater atomic weight of gold. "Are any of the bronze pennies from 1860 onwards scarce? Let us see. Bronze pennies are issued by the Mint in million's every year; not only are they required as currency for small amounts over the counter, but also for slot "gas meters, and for slot machines vending packets of chocolate, cigarettes,-matches in every railway stationi beach pavilion; .and department store in Great Britain. All are operated by pennies dated from 1860 ..to 1936. Over a. certain period the lowest number of bronze pennies issued from the Mint-was 3,870,720 in the. year 1894, and the greatest number over the same period in the year 189JJ no less than 24,192,000. PREPARED A YEAR AHEAD. "Anyone conversant with the commercial world knows that new season's goods, whether clothing, Christmas cards, or other articles subject to change in design, are all produced and shown in ; catalogues twelve months ahead. The same applies to the production of coins. The master, dies are usually ready in anticipation of a new ruler and for.ainew issue of coins, only waiting for the date to be put in the exergue on the reverse. It is;, obvious- that ne\v' money to be rissued on the.first of for that year has to>;be; struck in the previous year, rl^ any bronze pennies were inclined **<be ayit%,; scarcer than; others they wouldjbe the'l9ls pennies which were struck in 1914, when the Royal Mint was partly converted into a munition factory because the Great War was on. > "The Mint is a Governent factory and, like all manufacturing concerns, has to wait for orders. It has no direct,means of knowing when new coins are required for local use. This (information has to be obtained from the Bank of England, which is in daily contact with the London and provincial bankers. In the latter part; ,of every year the bankers order onan. average, one million sterling new silver coins,, as their customers like to,:. have, new money for Christmas. The Bank of England issues gold in bars of 500 ounces, and silver in bars of .400 ounces, according to the amount required for the new coins. The Mint,', no doubt, makes its own bronze from a well-known formula. I; ' A GREAT BALANCE. .V"Before being issued to the Mint the gold and silver bars are weighed at .the Bank of England in the 'Great Balance,' the only one of its kind in .existence. It cost £2000 arid is the most sensitive balance in the world, as the weight of a postage stamp will make the pointer move six inches on the scale. When so much accuracy is used in the issuing of precious metals to the Mint it is obvious that the same care is exercised at the Mint in checking the gold and silver to the melting rooms and subsequently in the counting of the finished coins. COIN VALUES, "The only copper coins of Great Britain between the year 1700 and the present time that are worth something more than their face value are the copper 'cartwheel' penny and twopenny pieces of George 111 of 1797. They can be purchased in London for 2s to ss, according' to condition. No collector in his sane senses would dream of giving £7 ,to £9 (as stated recently) for a' copper penny of 186Q, neither would he give a similar sum for a-bronze penny of 1914, no matter how scarce those coins might be, when a- silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy I of Egypt, with one of the most beautifully, executed portraits of a ruler who lived over 2200 years ago, can be purchased in London today for 15s. "Therefore the whole story of the mishap at the Royal Mint and the subsequent deductions can be dismissed as being unworthy of any serious thought," concluded Mr. Ford On the motion of Sir James Elliott, seconded by Mr. Tandy, Mr. Ford was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his interesting paper. ■ Mr. Hornblovv referred to another positive statement often published!that 1914 pennies were worth £7 19s 6d, and said that it was only necessary to divide 1914 by 12 and'2o to show.that the theory had its origin in a,practical joke. ' .