TNAG-0455-FCO40-520-Minting-of-new-coins-for-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 78

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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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