DOMINION COINS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 70, 19 September 1930, Page 7

DOMINION COINS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —In view of the presence in New Zealand of Sir Otto Niemeyer, who i* to investigate the question of banking and currency in the Dominion, I would suggest that the present is an opportune time for the Government to consider ih« advisability of arranging for the minting of a distinctive series of New Zealand coins issued by Australia and other parktiers in the British Commonwealth of Nations. Imperial sterling coins are tlia sole legal metallic currency in very few British countries at the present time. lv. this connection New Zealand is grouped with the Island of St. Helena, Gibraltar, Fiji, Soutli Africa, and the Falkland Islands. The following British countries have'coinage issues of special designs:— Ceylon, Australia, British Honduras, Canada, Irish Free State, East Africa, India, Nigeria, Straits Settlement, and certain small colonies of much less importance than New Zealand.

Apart from other advantages consequent upon the institution of a distinctive coinage issue for New Zealand, an advertising medium would be created owing to the fact that specimens of such new issues would be retained by tourists aud visitors, and sets of such coins would find their way into collections in all parts of the world. Australian coins bearing the Australian coat' of arms and the words "Advance Australia" are familiar to all New Zealanders. These coins are in free circulation in all parts of this Dominion, and thii is calculated to give visitors the impression that Australia and New Zealand ar« very closely linked financially—a doubtful advantage owing to the present difficult financial position of Australia. It is not suggested that the denominations of the coins should be changed. New Zealand has special postage stamp issues, and there appears no reason why we should not preserve our identity in regard to coinage issues, as is done in the case ' of Ceylon, Canada, Australia, and other progressive parts of the Empire.—l am, etc* ADVANCE NEW ZEALAND.