XN000022-1978-11-29 — Page 6

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FEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1978

MORE SMALL COINS DELIVERED

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THE GOVERNMENT THIS YEAR HAD ORDERED 105 MILLION 20-CENT COINS AND 70 MILLION 10-CENT COINS, AND ABOUT HALF OF THESE HAD BEEN DELIVERED, THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL WAS TOLD TODAY (WEDNESDAY).

REPLYING TO A QUESTION FROM THE HON. LI FOOK-WO, THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY, THE HON. PHILIP HADDON-CAVE SAID 54.5 MILLION 20-CENT COINS AND 33.3 MILLION 10-CENT COINS HAD BEEN DELIVERED.

*ALL THE COINS DELIVERED MAY NOT HAVE YET BEEN ISSUED AS 15,7 MILLION 10-CENT COINS AND 18,4 MILLION 20-CENT COINS ONLY ARRIVED IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, HE ADDED.

ANOTHER 20.5 MILLION 20-CENT COINS AND 16.2 MILLION 10-CENT COINS ARE EXPECTED DURING DECEMBER, AND 30 MILLION 20-CENT COINS AND 30 MILLION 10-CENT COINS EARLY IN THE NEW YEAR.

WHEN THE 1978 ORDERS HAD BEEN DELIVERED AND ISSUED, MR. HADDON- CAVE SAID, THERE WOULD BE 540 MILLION 10-CENT COINS AND 256 MILLION 20-CENT COINS IN CIRCULATION AND HE HOPED THAT, AS THE COINS ON ORDER WERE ISSUED, THE HOARDS OF SMALL COINS WOULD RUN DOWN.

MR. HADDON-CAVE BELIEVED THAT MANY PEOPLE TEND TO EMPTY THE IR POCKETS IN THE EVENINGS AND THROW THEIR SMALL COINS INTO A DRAWER AND LEAVE THEM THERE.

+IN ADDITION, TEMPORARY SHORTAGES IN SOME SMALL BUSINESS OPERATIONS HAVE BEEN PLAYED UP BY THE NEWS MEDIA TO A POINT WHICH HAS INDUCED SOME PEOPLE AND COMMERCIAL CONCERNS DELIBERATELY TO BUILD UP HOARDS OF COINS, HE SAID.

HE POINTED OUT THAT ONE REASON FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF 20-CENT COINS IN AUGUST 1975 WAS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF 10-CENT COINS NEEDED IN TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING 10 CENT MULTIPLES, AND BY THAT TIME THERE WERE 460 MILLION 10-CENT COINS OUTSTANDING.

→WHEN THIS YEAR'S 10 AND 20-CENT COIN ORDERS HAVE BEEN DELIVERED, THERE WILL BE, IN 10 CENT UNIT TERMS, 1,052 MILL ION UNITS AVAILABLE, AN INCREASE OVER AUGUST 1975 OF 129 PER CENT,+ HE SAID. AN INCREASE OF THIS ORDER IS UNUSUALLY LARGE BY ANY STANDARDS.+

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