WAR TIME COINAGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 183, 16 June 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

WAR TIME COINAGE.

Iron and postage-stamp money are among the curious forms ot coinage whic!i"this war has produced. In their annual bullion report Messrs. Samuel Montagu and Company tell how Russia, in order to overcome the difficulty of providing small change, has printed the designs of the ten, fifteen, and twenty kopeck off denominations ot the Romanoff Jubilee postage-stamp issue upon thick paper, and, by lettering on the reverso side, has autnorised them to Ix. l used as currency with the same legal tender as isiiver tubsidiary money. Iron ir ey was put into circulation bv Germany on October Ist. The federal Council deeded tuat the issue shouid be withdrawn two years after the cessation of hostilities. A hundred million of five-pfennig pieces was the authorised .extent of the issue. Stone money, called I'oi,' ir> bull used as the medium of exchange on the Island of l ap, one of the Caroline Islands, which passed from the Spanish to German sovereignty after tin l Spanish-American War, by purchase, and is now in the possession ot the British by capture. This stone money consists of large, solid stone wheels ra.iging in diameter from lit. to 12ft., having a central hole through which a pole can be inserted so as to eonveit the mass into "currency."

The value represented by the stone increases with its size, and the limestone, of which tlie "lei is composed, inu-t lie of tine while grain to bo considered good delivery. Net there semis to be no real necessity lor delivery at all, for it is i]iiit-e customary to earmark the money, it were, and leave it in it.-> old position outride the lil'r-t owner's hut. an excellent provision, considering tho bulkinc-s ot the maicrial.

The of small metallic currency in Mexico, owing to the amount of paper money put into circulation during the military struggle for the Presidency of the Republic, caused various expedients to be adopted, says l i/lyed's Weekly News." Tramcar tickets have been used fir small change, and cardboard money, aouut 1 in. by 2in. in size, good for five to ten and twenty centavos. was i:sued hv different leaders.