DESTRUCTION OF BANK NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20191, 31 August 1927, Page 4

DESTRUCTION OF BANK NOTES.

USEFULNESS OUTLIVED. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, August 30. A stage arrives in the history of every bank note when its sponsors recognise that its days of usefulness have ended. This interesting stage was reached by some £20,000 worth of Bank of Australasia notes in Auckland to-day, and one of the final scenes in the process of withdrawal and cancellation was enacted in the New Zealand Herald bindery department. Tied up in close neat bundles the notes, ranging in individual value from 10s to £lO, wore brought to meet their doom at the printer’s guillotine. The 10s notes were naturally by far the most numerous of all their kind. They are the easiest to acquire and the most freely handled. Each grubby bit of crinkled paper had doubtless had its own history and had been tightly clutched by many hands. Not only are the bank notes guarded by five or six active and alert officials, but also each note has the word “cancelled” stamped across u in perforation The bundles are undone one a*- a time and placed beneath the heavy knife. In a moment it shears through every one, taking off a largo corner on which is the signature. The corners and the main parts of the note are carefully gathered up again for removal. It is all over in a few minutes, and £20,000 worth of notes that have had their little day are no longer of value to anyone., Such a ceremony of destruction is carried out by the Bank of Australasia almost once a quarter, so that it will bo seen the effort made to keep the circulation notes in a clean a nd wholesome condition is no mere nominal one.