BRONZE COIN.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11749, 8 February 1919, Page 2

BRONZE COIN.

1 The huge importations of bronze coin required to remedy the shortage of “small change” in the Oommonwealtb is a striking illustration of the immense demand for pence and halfpence in “the community (says the Melbourne Age). The average member of tha public knows vary little about the ordinary currency of tbe day, save that a generous supply of it is decidedly useful in everyday life, but tbe Commonwealth ; Treasury officials harbour much strange lare relating to little-known characteristics ana features of . onr coinage. It is not generally realised, for instance, that the present bronze coinage i? linked with the system of weights and measures, so that tbe new penny, halfpenny, and farthing are required to be of the weight respectively of one-tbird, one fifth, and one-tenth of an avoirdupois ounce, though the weights were not stampad on the coins. Nevertheless, for the man wbo wishes to measure out aa ounce of some commodity three new pennies will form a handy anbstitnte for a weight. In tbe same way tbe halfpence are coined exactly of the diameter of an Imperial inch, while a penny is about one and one eight of an inch in diameter. The most surprising fact in relation to the weights of everyday currency, however, is elicited in answer to the question, “How many one pound notes weighs as much as a sovereign?” Few people will guess that the answer la “Four.” One thousand sovereigns weigh about 181 b, and 1000 £1 cotes weigh 4^lb.