WHERE PENNIES GO.

Grey River Argus, 28 May 1923, Page 8

WHERE PENNIES GO.

Large Numbers Apparently Lost. The Roval Mint announced recently that, as there are too many copper coins in circulation, those of the ‘ uncrowned Queen Y ictoria stampage are to be withdrawn. Consequently appeals have been issued to banks, post offices, and similar institutions to withhold any such coins that come into their possession and to return them to the mint. The amount of copper in circulation, and what becomes of it, is something of a mystery. We have, of course, four distinct patterns of com. There are the “uncrowned” Victorian, which dates from 1860, the “crowned” Victorian, first issued in 1895, the Edwardian, and the Georgian. (The Victorian copper coins issued before December 17, 1860, were recalled in 1869.) The numbers of each variety issued are as under: — Design. Value. No. of coins 1860 .. £2,247,713 781,882,080 1895 . . 777,809 244,302,240 1902 .. 1,289,232 395,594,160 11911 . ’ 3’,281,030 970,384,320 Total £7,595,784 2,392,162,800 {Latest available figures. Of this total, £420,000 has been exported to the dominions and colonies and £121,000 has been withdrawn from circulation. This represents, perhaps, 200,000,000 coins. What has become of the rest? Assume that everyone of us carired a dozen coppers in his pocket, and assume that shops and banks held copper to the extent, of a further dozen per head of population. These very liberal estimates would account? for, Jroughly, 1,000,000,000. So it would appear that since 1860 another 1,000,000,000 coins have been Tost. This, after all, only means that, on an average, everybody Joses either a penny or a halfpenny every two years. Calling in the surplus coin will mean a considerable loss to the mint, as the value of the actual metal (which is bronze, not. copper) is very much less than the face value of the coins.- For instance, in 1918, bronze costing £135,107 was made-into £418,845 worth of coin, thus showing a profit of £283,738. The profit on the minting depends partly on the market price of the metal used and partly on the relative number of pennies and halfpennies, for, although a halfpenny contains double the amount of metal of a farthing, a penny is not double the weight of a halfpenny. A ton of pennies is worth £448, but a ton of halfpennies or farthings is worth only £373 6/8. The amount of coin issued by the mint each year varies considerably according to the public demand. Tn 1919, when prices wore very high and the need of currency consequently great, the record number of 156,954,516 copper coins, value £548,272 13/10fd, was issued.