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a minimum amount in which it is prepared to deal with the public as regards issues or redemptions. If the potential profits are sufficiently large these minimum amounts are unlikely to present a serious obstacle to a determined dealer, and there could be
additional costs for the issuing authority in policing the
operation. Raising the limits would damage confidence and
credibility. Although the legal tender provisions of the
currency legislation in all the dependencies place an upper limit on the value at which coins may be passed as legal tender to discharge a particular obligation, the legal tender aspect is distinct from the redemption right. An issuing authority could
not equitably refuse to accept large quantities of coins from,
say, banks and traders who may legitimately accumulate stocks
through the normal course of business. Once again, ultimately, liability for the coins remains with the issuing authority.
Exchange controls might be used to block redemption proceeds
and thus to discourage in advance any attempt to redeem. This
would be hard to justify not only as regards non-resident holders
in particular, but also as regards all holders who believe
themselves entitled under the legislation to the conversion of their coins into the specified foreign currency.
(11) Stop the issue of specimen coins. All the redemptions
experienced by the territories for which we have data have been
confined to specimen coins. Apparently no proof versions have yet been redeemed. This undoubtedly reflects the pricing
mechanism (as explained in Section 8.7). Under present conditions it would be reasonable to expect fewer redemptions
from future issues if the specimen version were discontinued.
However, such a measure might well lead to concern among serious collectors who contest the validity, for numismatic purposes, of proof coins not supported by similar coins available at face value in the country of origin. They might prefer to
concentrate their attention on countries which continue to meet
this criterion.
(12) More stringent control by HMG. At present all coin issues in
the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar require
HMG's approval of both design and denomination. In other
dependencies specific approval is not required unless it is
proposed to use the effigy of a member of the Royal Family or