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CHAPTER V
THE COST
1
Minting of Coins
76.
Hong Kong coins are manufactured under the direction of the Master of the Royal Mint in accordance with Article 3(1) of the Hong Kong (Coinage) Order 1936. Although the Article refers to "new coins", Crown
Counsel's opinion is that no person other than the Master of the Mint can
mint Hong Kong coins. It may be considered that relief should be sought
from this restriction if it can be found that coins of comparable quality
and with the same degree of security can be obtained at lower cost from
other sources. But we make no specific recommendations in this regard.
Initial ordering quantities
77.
The setting of ordering quantities for the two additional denominations is not a simple task and we do not consider that these
can be estimated with any precision. It is always difficult to assess
demand at Chinese New Year and we believe that a $2 coin is likely to
prove very popular at the Lunar Festival. Assistance in determining the initial ordering quantities for the new 20 cent and $2 coins was sought
from the Royal Mint.
The advice we subsequently received is reproduced
below:
11
I am afraid that our research into experience
elsewhere has not yielded any useful results. It can be shown that in theory the ultimate demand for each of
the new coins should be 140 for every 100 in circulation of the next highest denomination (i.e. respectively the 50 cent coin and the $5 note), but a study of existing
currency systems shows that in practice actual demand is often very different from the theoretical need. The reason is that people do not always use coins in the most efficient way but are influenced by habit and by personal preferences for certain shapes and sizes. Even without such complications the size of the ultimate
demand may bear no relationship to what may occur in the early stages as there is often a reluctance on the part of the public to accept new coins of any sort.
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