CROWNS ISSUED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 444, 27 May 1937, Page 6

CROWNS ISSUED

RUSHED IN SYDNEY “Fakes” Circulated Sydney, May 20. It is understood that Sydney is to receive £69,000 worth of five-shilling pieces issued to commemorate the Coronation. So far £30,000 worth have been put into circulation and the city has simply "swallowed” them up. The Commonwealth Bank reports an unprecedented demand for the coins from all parts of the State. At the same time there have been requests from Canada and South Africa for sonsignments to be forwarded to those distant lands. Apparently people abroad are collecting foreign coins as curiosities or numismatic specimens on a large scale. To those who knew the old Victorian five-shilling piece the new crown will seem strangely familiar. It has the same general appearance, and it resembles . the crown of Queen Victoria’s day in the lettering on the edge. Much In Evidence. Because of its weight and size it is not likely ever to pass rapidly from hand to hand, but the people who like to collect such things or send them as gifts to friends and relations were very much in evidence in Sydney last week. After a tremendous rush to the Commonwealth Bank on the first day of issue, the officials in charge limited the applicants first to two coins each and then to one. In spite of this strict economy, the first issue speedily disappeared. There are only 800,000 provided for the whole of Australia, but the people of Sydney may take consolation from the assurance offered by the Secretary of the Treasury at Canberra that more may be forthcoming if the demand continues to exceed the supply. Great Disappointment. As usually happens when a new coin is issued for a special occasion, the critics are disposed to deal severely with it as a work of art. Mr Will Ashton, who is now director of our National Art Gallery, told" a Sydney Morning Herald interviewer that the design was a great disappoointment to him.

He compared the coin most unfavourably with the beautiful five-shil-ling piece issued in England for the Silver Jubilee. He regards this as "just another Australian coin,” by no means distinctive or attractive, and he particularly objected to the fact that the design is the work of two artists and not one.

Mr J. S. Watkins, well known artist, says the coin is "a numismatic nightmare, with one side so rough that it would grate cheese-.” The dingo on the crown side seems to him almost unutterably bad: “it looked like a trade mark for a tin of jam, and would disgrace an ordinary signwriter.”

Mr Dettilo Rubbo finds the lettering ‘altogether unsuitable,” and Mr G. Laugher finds in the crown further proof of the necessity for a board of artists and architects "to pass designs for\coins. stamps, public memorials and other national works.” To all this Sir H. Sheehan, who is Secretary of the Treasury, has replied that the coin, which was ordered by the Federal Government from London, “has been designed by the best artists that the Royal Mint could command,” and he is obviously far less interested in the artistic merit ot the coin than in the possibility that it may he counterfeited. Curiously, this expectation has already been realised, for before the end of the first week of issue a Melbourne bank had taken its first counterfeit fiveshilling piece.

The officials concerned naturally insisted that this faked coin was so good an imitation that it might have deceived even the best expert. However, Mr Menzies, who is actlngTreasurer, called for a report on the coin, and it has been announced officially that it is rather a poor specimen of its class —-differing from the genuine coins in weight, ring and colour, and being disfigured by several minor flaws in the lettering.