DO NOT MIX TOO WELL

Evening Star, Issue 23499, 13 February 1940, Page 8

DO NOT MIX TOO WELL

TELLERS' DIFFICULTIES WITH NEW NOTE ISSUES PUBLIC NOT RUSHING BANKS FOR SUPPLIES Ask a bank teller what he thinks of the new bank notes issued by the New Zealand .Reserve Bank, and his answer will probably be more vehement than ilattering. He will agree without hesitation that the gaudy £SO is without doubt a pretty issue; that the Government has practised saisfactory war economy with the diminutive 10s. aud that a new issue occasionally makes for brighter banking work. When it comes to handling them, however, lie will be adamant on the point that the old issue and the new do not mix too well. When a few dwarf 10s notes are intermingled with a liberal number of the old issue trouble starts, since it is hard to discern where the old note left off and the new one began. Which means that counting work has to be done very carefully indeed, lest one of those new “ 10 bobs ” (what charming little notes!) is overlooked.

He will recollect with a twinkle _in his eye (he is used to wrapping thousands together carelessly and throwing them into the same old box year after year) the days when the old “ fifties ” were used to purchase 10s worth of goods, and a frenzied chase ensued to trace and reclaim them. No chance of that now, with that distinctive £SO issue—unless, of course, some of the “ old school ” still languish in fortunate pockets awaiting the off chance to be front page news. It is the “liver’’ that suits him best. He can cease to worry about this one,(for the economy has not been practised here—the new aud old notes are alike in colour and demarcation, while they vary little in size. The old and the new fit happily into the same neat piles, with less worry to the teller who counts them in their thousands. Thus the old and the new circulate, but the .public has not the responsibilities of the teller. It is only when they especially desire to have these new notes that they are particularly interested even then they are more curious than anything else. It is more just a case ot “ Have you seen the new tenner? than anvthing else with them. The public has not stormed the banks to possess them ; nor have the banks attempted to thrust the abbreviated issues upon their patrons. They are being absorbed into the currency of the country very normally, without fuss or bother, and the public is interested only for the passing moment. Few big wage cheques arc met with them, but there has been a fair circulation from banks to the Post Office to meet cheques. As yet however the Government has not decided that’ “ the old order giveth place to the new.” Tellers would wish it so.