MONEY TO BURN

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1930, Page 8

MONEY TO BURN

CANCELLED BANK-NOTES. GO. UP IN SMOKE.

What happens to all the bank notes that become, too dirty and mutilated to be allowed to remain in circulation In the course of a year millions are burned and their ashes scattered into dust.

MOVING THROUGH LIFE

In the good old days of gold coinage there was nothing of this, but since piper money has iomp into universal ~se—ande —and gold seems to have receded to the days of treasure chests and pirates—the business of withdrawing and disposing of decrepit notes has become an important cog in the banking machine. It is a necessary practice with the dunking institutions which have their New Zealand headquarters in Wellington, and .stalls of. as mamas four are engaged the whole year round in handling consignments of old notes:, counting and checking them, classing, punching, and finally disposing of them. When a new note goes out into circulation it does so without any estimate as to the probable, length of its life. If it is a note whose fate is to travel and see something of the world, it might be crumpled, stained, and bearing every evidence of dissipation I within a, few weeks. Its untold story might be one of hunger and horny hands, of pockets in frayed clothing, of dark alleys and hotel bars where “characters” jostle, of dice, of fickle fortune, and, the turn of the card. Others live longer on virtue, stowed away snugly in some old maid’s purse, lodging with wealth in vaults, or trafficking with the , elegant, and ultimately falling gently into decay with the dignity of the aristocrat. Strange that there should be class distinction even among bank notes! But at some time or other they must fall from grace, and from all over New Zealand come together in Wellington in the office of the cancellation department of their particular bank. Some have a forced pathos by bearing inscriptions such as “Qood-bye,” it’s hard to part with you,” which many people like in write in nleasant misery.

CRIPPLED FORTUNES.

The actual cancelling of the notes is well and truly done. About 15 years ago one bank used to punch a large hole in the centre of each note, but a considerable number of these notes were stolen, the missing part filled in by means of pen and ink, and again circulated, to the misfortune of those into whose hands they fell. Now that bank cuts off the corners of the notes 1 as an additional safeguard. Another bank punches three large boles in each note, and most institutions stamp them with the word “Cancelled” in coloured ink. Whatever the method of mutilation, the notes are then tied up in bundles for destruction. Batches are burned as they accumulate gencr'ally in lots of 100,000 to 150,000. One hank headquarters in Wellington burns on an average notes to the value of a million pounds annually, and another institution notes to the value of a million and a half. The business of burning is '"cry solemn—“almost like a funeral,” as one official described it. The bundles are borne like a body to the bank’s own incinerator, and two lynx-eyed inspectors watch the ceremony of casting each crippled fortune to the flames—watching until oven the ashes 7 are reduced to powder,. Arother bank in Wellington does not dispose of its own notes, bui sends them to the head office in Austro In to be destroyed, \cting for the Wellington province alone it withdraws notes to the value of £7O,COT*, or £BO,OOO annually. Tn the cancelled note department of on!e bank I visited were large tintrunks on the floor full of old notes,, and others were , stacked in a cupboard Jt was a feast of doomed wealth. Tim officer in charge showed; me some cancelled one-pound notes,, part of a batch of two thousand stolen; ten years ago. which were still drifting back. Such had notes are passedthrough the totalisator, and are excepted in the rush—or were, until stricter vigilance was exercised. Whoever have the balance of those worthless notes now will consequently have greater difficulty in di-nosing of them, to their own advantage. People therefore need to be careful | about accenting notes with holes i punched in them, corners cut eff

evenly, or bearing ink letters partly erased. One’ of these notes, as reported in “The Dominion,” came into the possession of a Nelson rericient a week or two since, and was identified as one of a lot cancelled by a bank 23 years ago. •

CLEVER TRICKS

The writer was shown one or two clumsy forgeries of bank notes, but I t.hef bank officials).stated that forger-; ie l s ! "wore rare, and-bad, and that j cbiunterfeitihg was-.- ipractically nonexistent in New iZealand to-day. How- 1 ever, • clever tricks'were often practisud'h He exhibited, one. piece of paper* as a'n example ofu,several victimise-J tioliS. It was an innocent newspap- 1 er'reproduction of-,a- banknote for advertisementi purposes,i and a number j of these had 'been cut out and successively passed., r. The theft of new issue bank-notesp-rUiisugned—for the purpose of adding a fictitious signature before circulating was not unknown.

The notes of all banks are now, m satisfaction of public desire, of uniform size. 1 New issues are made as required for the purpose of filling the gap caused by old. .notes being withdrawn, Of course, -some notes which are : sp disreputable that they are objectionable,- often continue for some time in circulation,, but as soon as they come' 'toP the -bank they are withdrawn. So. long-ias; a good note bears both numbers it will be honoured. If A one pound note is torn in half the bank will • pan only ten shillings on it—because the-owner of the other 'hdlf may want full-.;value for his piece atsb. The bank iwiji not pay out, !however, on a cancelled note. ij-c-Fvbm the roomf.ifull of notes 1 withdrew without asking to be allowed the painful pleasure of one day watching a king J ransom go up in smoke.