CO129-257 - Public Offices & Others - 1892 — Page 175

Frned neurits

173

In view of the fact that a fresh Order in Council

will be required and that the probable profit will fall

considerably short of the amount estimated by the Acting

Colonial Treasurer, it seems desitable that the advantages

derivable from the issue of a half-cent in bronze should

be clearly ascertained. If the coin is issued it must

bear some relation, as regards weight and design, to the

coins already in circulation, and could not therefore be,

as suggested by the Governor, "of the size and description

* of the specimen half-cent of the Straits Settlements

which accompanies his despatch.

The legal weight of that

coin is 72 grains, those of the cent and quarter cent of the

The Hong Straits Settlements being in proportion to it.

Kong cent, however, weighs 115.755 grains, and the mil, or tenth of a cent, weighing 15 434 grains, is not proportion- al to it. It is further to be borne in mind that all the coins of Hong Kong bear Chinese as well as English inscrip-

tions, and that they are of bronze, not copper.

The expenses incidental to the issue of $10,000 in half-cents will depend in great measure on the weight

For a bronze coin similar to the adopted for the coin. specimen forwarded from the Colony, the expense of laying the above sum down in Hong Kong, at the present price of copper, would amount to about £1,020, equivalent, at the most recent rating of the dollar (16,713/92) to $7,420, 80 that the balance of profit would not exceed about $2,600, or half of the sum anticipated by the Acting Colonial

Treasurer.

If, however, the weight be fixed at half that of the Hong Kong cent, a 57-8775 grains, the expense8 would be about £110, (say $800) less, and the profit, there-

fore, $3,400.

Specimens