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will be fairest to sellers and will at the same time be most
advantageous to the purchaser is, I venture to suggest, to call monthly for tenders for the supply of 10 cent pieces in sums of
not less than 85,000 up to a total limit of £200,000. This will
give several Companies which collect subsidiary coin in large quantities such as the two Tramway Companies, various Companies
running ferries across the harbour and River Steamers to Canton
and elsewhere, an opportunity of disposing of their collections
otherwise than to Money Changers who, there is reason to believe,
combine to make the price of subsidiary coin.
5.
About 8 weeks elapse between the shipment of
subsidiary coin from here and the receipt by the Crown Agents of
the sums realised by its sale. Shipments of $100,000 a fortnight of coins purchased by Goverment will therefore form a cycle which will keep the transactions within the proposed limit of £500,000.
The average monthly receipts in subsidiary
6.
coin are at present as follows:-
From Opium Monopoly.
* Post Office.
*
Railway.
Other Departments.
.$335,000
50,000
25,000
10,000
$420,000.
A monthly shipment of $400,000 would suffice to deal with this collection. But if you approve of the proposals contained in this Despatch I would propose to make fortnightly shipments (that is by each P. and 0. Mail) of £300,000 in ten cent pieces which is now the only denomination which it is desired to demonetize.
7.
I shall be glad if you will be good enough to inform me by telegraph whether you approve my suggestion. I will then inform the Crown Agents of the date upon which the fortnightly shipments will begin; and they should understand that these will be made by each P. and 0. Mail until further notice in ten cent pieces to about the amount stated. I will for the present inform
them