HOARDED PAPER MONEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21878, 14 August 1934, Page 10

HOARDED PAPER MONEY

EXCHANGE AT BANKS NEW ISSUE OF NOTES DURABILITY IN QUESTION An old man tottered into a city hank the other day and surprised a teller by producing £IOOO in trading bank notes from a faded old bag. He said he wanted to exchange thorn for Reserve Bank notes. Without more ado tho exchange was effected and he went away happily to board his supply of brand new paper money. Another case of hoarding was revealed when a woman entered a bank with £7OO worth of old notes to be exchanged. She, too, was given the equivalent in the clean, crackling paper of tho new issue, and went away to hide it in some secret place where, even if moths do not corrupt, neither will interest accrue. Since the Reserve Bank notes were issued on August 1 to replace the trading bank issues, many people have called at the banks to change sums of a few pounds. Only the two instances of hoarding mentioned would appear to have been brought to light in Auckland. In each case the old notes tendered were of various denominations. None were more than a few years old, indicating that, even if they represented lifetime savings, their owners had kept them more or less renewed.

Further Oases Expected An accountant at one bank related an experience in Australia whon an aged man submitted for exchange £IOOO worth of notes, soni9 of which were 80 years old. A number were issued by a bank which, at tho time of the oxchange, had been out of business for 20 years. He said it was to be expected that further cases of hoarding would be revealed in New Zealand. The type of person who boarded was usually elderly and very often isolated from the stream of current affairs. To those in such a backwater, the news about the functioning of the Reserve Bank and its issue of notes \yould be a long time in percolating. Complaints have been made by some people that the Reserve Bank notes have not the durability of the old notes and that, although they have been in circulation for only a fortnight, they are showing undue signs of wear. Banking officials state, however, that a fair test cannot be made until they have been in circulation for about three months.

"Wait until the first race meeting comes along," said one official, "and seo how they stand that." Frequency ol Renewals Although a bank note going through the mill of the totalisator on a race day has a fairly strenuous time, there are many other ways, at some of which bank officials can only despairingly guess, in which perfectly good notes can be ruined. Even at this early stage, Reserve Bank notes, or their maltreated, anaemic remains, have been returned to the banks for renewal. This, however, has no special significance, as in the days before the Reserve Bank a new note might bo issued one day and brought back the next, a smeared and tattered shadow of its former self. As-far as durability under conditions of fair usage is concerned, it is stated that judgment upon the new notes at would be premature. In any case, the issue is only a temporary one.