DECIMAL COINAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21503, 29 May 1933, Page 6

DECIMAL COINAGE

NEW ZEALAND'S INQUIRY TWO VIEWS UPHELD NEW TYPES OF SMALL COINS The article on decimal coinage by Dr. E. P. Neale,- published on Friday, has aroused interest in the subject. Two contributions on the subject are published below. Mr. H. Brown, Pipiroa, writes:— It requires only a little thought to realise that a decimal system is very easily adapted to our present monetary reckoning. We already have two of the necessary denominations in use, the pound and the florin. All we require now is to discard the shilling and invent a coin one-tenth the value of a florin and call it, say* a cent. We would then, instead of pounds, shillings and pence, have pounds, florins and cents and our account forms, etc., would have instead of £ s. d., £ f- c. Every other British country knows what, a pound note is; that a florin is one-tenth of a pound and it is simple enough to 1 realise that a cent is one-tenth of a florin or onehundredth of a pound. Then 376 cents would be 37 florins 6 cents or £3, 7 florins, 6 cents, and could be done without any mental process at all .You cannot change 376 pence into £ s. d. at a, glance and with the absolute certainty that you have not made a mistake. In the decimal system, seeing is believing. Details of Ooins Now for the coins we could hare. The pound note would remain the same. The florin would remain the same. A five florin note would replace the ten shilling note and (except for the lettering) would be the same in size, colour and value. We could replace the halfcrown by a three florin piece, equal to our six in silver. The smaller coins would be the cent, the size of a threepence (and to the value of 2 2-sd), a three cent piece the size of our sixpence (value 7 l-od) and a five cent piece, the same size and value as our shilling. It is obvious now that a cent (2 2-5 pence) is too large for our smallest coin. Divide the cent into ten and call the result a "mil" (or a "mite") and we have a coin the equivalent of the farthing (l-od). These would be coined in bronze —lm. (l-od); 2m. (2-od) to replace our halfpenny; sm. to replace our penny.

This overcomes the difficulty of penny postage, penny tram fares, penny chocolate and weighing machines. There would be no confusion in the other coins as we retain the pound and the florin and all the new coins would be similar in size, metal and value to those at present in use. Many Benefits Claimed The change in book-keeping, etc., would be at the very beginning a gain. The tram sections could be adjusted to give the same value for the coin as now. Columns of the new money could be manipulated on the ordinary adding machines, while practically the only ones to suffer would be those firms having book-keeping machines and the like. But what about the inestimable benefits fc, change to the decimal system would confer on the thousands of smail shopkeepers, tradesmen, farmers and. the general public in reckoning out tneir money matters, not to mention the hour a day for five days a week and forty weeks of the year for six years of the best years of a child's life in the acquiring a doubtful degree of accuracy in an antiquated monetary system. The reform of our coinage would be at least one step forward from the medieval mess of our weights and measures. Mr. A. J. Lewis, Takapuna, writes:— Dr. E. P. Xeale's article on decimal coinage is both interesting and instructive, and every support should be given to anyone who desires the retention of the present system of coinage. Dollars, francs, yens or any other coins all offer troubles betweep nations and the more that can be done toward stabilisation and the establishment of international tokens in regard to coinage should be done by every country alike. The Empire Standard For the sake of our employed let us produce our own coinage here by all means, but still, let us adhere to the standard adopted by the greater part of the Empire. If some improvement in coinage is necessary why not try the following series:—Jd, Id, 2d, 4d, Bd, Is 4d, 2s Bd, 5s 4d, with notes value 10s Sd and 21s 4d. Each one of these values bears a direct ratio to the other and in addition any value between these amounts can be obtained with a minimum number of coins, a feature which should.be of value in the present shortage. Twenty shillings can still equal one pound and the firms using the book-keeping machines of the present types could still continue to use them, without any trouble. I hope our commercial houses will stand firm for the retention of the pound of twenty shillings of twelve pence each, no matter what number of pence our tokens represent, so long as they are whole pence and not fractions of a penny.