UNDER-WEIGHT SILVER.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1924, Page 4

UNDER-WEIGHT SILVER.

ROYAL MINT CALLS IN COINS. DISAPPEARANCE OF SOVEREIGN. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The Royal Mint is calling in all old, worn and mutilated silver coin in the bands of banks in the Dominion. The chairman of the Associated Banks of New Zealand (Mr. P. H. Cox) states the coin affected is that issued prior to 1920, the weight of which Juul become leas by at least 8 per cent, of the standard weight. Ordinary and mutilated silver coins of the old fineness wil also be taken, but not in large quantities. The Royal Mint will allow the full nominal value in new silver f or the old coins. The ordinary silver coin in circulation is roughly 3 per cent, to 4 per cent, below the standard weight The Royal Mint is prepared' to take .£96,000 of worn silver from New Zealand itself, and £4OOO from Western Samoa, but it is believed there will not be much more than £20,000 ro go from both countries. The almost total disappearance of the sovereign and half sovereign flora circulation, and the comparative cumbersomeness of silver money lias male the ten shilling note very popular, so that silver is not now used nearly ao much as it used to be in New Zealand, and the pound note has quite taken the place of the golden sovereign. Australian minted silver will not come into the collection of worn and mutilated coins called for by the Royal Mint. Silver containing alloy and having a yellow tinge and known to som* people as “war silver,” apparently will be taken. In any case it will not be sufficiently worn.