DESTRUCTION OF OLD BANK NOTES: 80,000 EACH DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23316, 27 July 1950, Page 3

DESTRUCTION OF OLD BANK NOTES: 80,000 EACH DAY

“In the Reserve Bank at Wellington they have money to burn, and what is more, they burn it to the extent of about £BO,OOO a day,” said the deputygovernor of the bank, Mr. Alexander Ross, to members of the Nelson Rotary Club. Bank notes, he said, were not like the old soldier “who simply fades away.” They had a very restricted life and there were bank employees who were concerned only with the withdrawal of notes. “In point of fact, every branch of every bank is withdrawing every day old and worn notes and dispatching them to the Reserve Bank,” lie said. “Actually on an average just under 80,000 note forms are destroyed every day on the premises of the Reserve Bank.” According io Mr. Ross, the 10s note has the shortest expectation of life—about a year—while the £1 note lasts a little longer. Between the time a £5 note is issued and its return to the Reserve Bank nearly two years elapse. The £lO and £SO notes are usually in circulation three years and three and a half years respectively. On the present circulation the note office withdrew and destroyed old and worn-out notes to the extent of 20.000,000 forms a year. It was also concerned with the handling of upwards of 21,000,000 new bank notes each year.