WORN OUT MILLIONS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1912, 21 November 1913, Page 3

WORN OUT MILLIONS.

WHY THE PENNIES ESCAPED. .Worn-out money withdrawn from cireuiation and received at the Mint last year represented £3,714,600, made up as follows:— £■ Gold 3,150,000 Silver 544,205 Bronze 20,485 1 With the exception of 1,300,000 (jglrt sovereigns returned from India, most of the coins were received from hanks in Great Britain. Many pennies which had reached a ripe old ago escaped ■extinction through the unprecedented popularity of their , species. It was considered desirable, according to the report of the Deputy Master of the Mint, owing to the great demand for bronze coin last year, to suspend the- witMrawa! in the United Kingdom for a s?;ort. juried. The issue of Imperial bronze coin was £323,235, more than twice ths average of recent years. The extraordinary demand is stated to be mainly due to tile increased use of small change in paying wages because of tho Insurance Act, and the Mint, for the first time in thirty years, had recourse to an outside firm for tlie coinage of pence lo meet tho demand. The number of penny-pieces coined was 05,155,200, weighing over 603 tons.