FUNNY MONEY, or Wellington Won't Take It

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 9

FUNNY MONEY, or Wellington Won't Take It

[Tt happened in Coronation week, when so many of our leaders were in London paying homage to the Queen. "Five shillings," said the woman in the telephone exchange. (With that admirable brevity that marks the busy North, words like "please" are omitted in Wellington, thus making basic English baser.) I tossed down two half-wheels. "Not that one!" One was heads, the other tails, The ‘accusing finger pointed to tails. If bore the semi-circular legend incorporating "Fid. Def. Ind. Imp.," and was clearly issued under the authority and effigy of Georgius VI. "What’s wrong with it?" I said dlankly. ; "Not that one!" They are concise in Wellington: explanations waste .words. "Look," I said, "there’s rather more silver in that English half-crown than in this New Zealand nickelodeon." "Not that one." "Ah, well," I said, philosophically exchanging it for another, "it’s bad but it’s British." | ATER on I toasted the Queen with an agreeable barman and several friends. Wary this time, I paid for the drinks in carefully selected coinage. Then I passed over the culprit coin for the barman’s inspection. "Would that buy a drink or two?" He examined it with critical interest, and dwelt momentarily on "Ind, Imp."

"Ah." he announced with pleasurable surprise, "a Pakistani_half-crown!" Silently I returned it to my _ non spending pocket. But accidentally I tendered it to a tramconductor for a _ onesection ride. He was Dutch, and much too fly to be taken in by a common counterfeiter. It went back into my proBritish pocket. \V HEN I told the story to the wife of a friend, and passed her the coin for identification, she announced triumphantly that it was Australian. "Yes," I said with an effort. "It’s the one they spin in the test series." My hostess was very, patient when I recounted

the whole affair with a good deal of emphasis. "Didn’t you know they don’t take English silver in Wellington? But I’ve found a way round it-I put it in the milk bottle." That poor-Wellington milkman, padding round in the dark, ther -~ ting

the takings at high noon. Horrors! A foreign sixpence! The milkman milked! As I said, it happened in Coronation week, when so many of our leaders were in London paying homage to the

Queen,

Denis

Glover