ROYAL MINT “MAKES” MONEY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19503, 11 June 1925, Page 7

ROYAL MINT “MAKES” MONEY.

AKA'UAL PROFIT OF ,©,000,000. Or.o of the best paying institutions in England, is curiously enough, the Royal Mint. In a very litoral sense, the mint makes money, but it also makes money. Bank notes, treasury notes, silover, copper, and even cheques all pay their share, but the leading place is easily held by the treasury note. The amount of treasury notes in circulation is, at the moment, about For all this amount the Government has been paid in hard cash. Sixty million pounds of this total is held in coin or bank notes as a hacking her the issue, but the remaining •■£•225,000,000 is invested in giltedged, interest-bearing securities. Allowing interest at no higher than 4 per cent, an annual profit of ,£‘9,000,000 is obtained. Against this really very considerable profit must be set, of course, the expenses of managing the issue and printing the notes. A treasury note, on the average, lias a life of six months, and since 1911 more than •t. 000,000,000 have been issued. The cost of the paper and printing is nevertheless, a trifle compared with the accruing profits. Zfo such profits were forthcoming when gold was circulated. Gold cost the Government a lot of money. The actual cost of the gold in a- sovereign was precisely £l, and all the expense of minting came extra in the form of treasury expense. Furthermore, when about two pennyworth of gold had horn worn off in a sovereign, it was considered “light,” and was withdrawn! from circulation. ’ The substitution of these light coins by new ones cost the Stale about £10,009 a year. On all coins but gold, the treasury again makes a handsome profit, because silver and bronze, coins do not cost anytlring like their face, values. The value of tic silver in a lialf-ci-ovGi is leas than a shilling.