DISAPPEARANCE OF COLD.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14143, 21 July 1916, Page 2

DISAPPEARANCE OF COLD.

The Sydney correspondent of the "Post" -writes: —

Since tho beginning of war gold coinago has practically disappeared from circulation. Commonwealth Bank notes and silver and bronze coins are all that the average man sees, and it is understood that as soon as the very few gold coins which remain in the hands of the general public go across the counter of a bank they.are put aside to swell the sovereigns and half-sovereigns which are interned as a war reserve. The rarity of gold coinage came strikingly under the notice of the management in ■connection with a concert given the other night at tho Sydney Town Hall by the Canadian tenor, Paul Dufault. Nearly two thousand persons paid for admission. Amongst the money col-; kcted at the ticket' offices, approximately £200, there was only a solitary gol:l coin, a half-sovereign. The cashiers at some of tho biggest business places say that sometimes a whole week-passes without their catching -sight of a gold coin in t the. great sums that pass through their hands. Yet we have it oh official record that since the Melbourne branch of the Royal Mint was established in 1872 it has coined 130,967.549 sovereigns and 1,767,895 half-sovereigns. There must pis -a lot of thoso coins still in existence.