NOT LEGAL TENDER
OUT-OF-DATE PENNIES Battered and bent, the face of the young Queen scarcely visible on its dingy surface, the aged penny lay on the counter while the shopkeeper regarded it suspiciously. \ “If it’s after 1800,’,’ he said, “ it’s all right, but anything before that is not legal tender.” There are hundreds of early Victorian copper pennies still in circulation, and even late Georgian ones remain comparatively common, but it is, strictly speaking, illegal to spend them. “ The copper coinage was withdrawn from circulation in 1860 and replaced by the present-day bronze, and anything previous to that has no official existr. ence,” an official of the Royal Mint informed a Morning Post representative. “In the same way no silver coin is legal that is dated before 1816, since at that time the entire currency of the country was reorganised. “ People still bring us a number of Victorian and late Georgian copper coins,” a member of a well-known firm of numismatists stated, “ but they have only their face value. At the time of their withdrawal thousands of them were retained by country people, and these are even now being returned into circulation.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 22204, 6 March 1934, Page 3
Word Count
192NOT LEGAL TENDER Otago Daily Times, Issue 22204, 6 March 1934, Page 3
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