AN INTERESTING SIDELIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 84, 8 April 1936, Page 6

AN INTERESTING SIDELIGHT

AN interesting sidelight on the Italo-Abyssinian war has bee: the action of the Italian soldiers changing their money inti the currency of Abyssinia. Usually the country which it is ex peeted will be defeated will iind its currency depreciate in vahu and be regarded as unacceptable to the probable conquerors The reason for this is, of course, that credit instruments art likely to be over-issued in a country which expects to b< defeated. In Italy the attention is such that the currency is only held up to present level by contracting- purchases from abroad Nevertheless, the internal situation is declining persistently, and evidently the Italian soldiers believe that their holdings ol Italian lira are likely to depreciate in value very considerably in the near future. They are taking the opportunity, therefore, of exchanging their lira into Maria Theresa Thaler. The Thaler, or dollar, is a silver coin minted in Vienna, and shipped to the Red Sea district, where it is railed to Eritrea. The Italian lira is paper money. The merchants of the Red Sea district collect the lira and send them to Cairo for sale. Strictly, of course, the dollar is not an Abyssinian currency : it is only in use in Abyssinia. It is an example, however, of the superiority of a metal coin of approximately its own face value as distinct from a token coin -which has an exchange value in excess of its intrinsic -worth as metal, or of a paper currency when that paper is not adequately backed.