Demonetization of fifty cent coin made legal tender
by Proclamation No. 7 of 1951
I am asked to advise as to the legality of demonetizing by Proclamation a coin which was made legal tender by Proclamation No. 7 of 1951, namely a cupro-nickel Hong Kong fifty cent piece.
The said Proclamation No. 7 of 1951 was made under Article 4 of the Hong Kong (Coinage) Order, 1936 (Proclamation No. 1 of 1937) which provides as follows:
"4(1) If any new coins are coined they shall, from a
date fixed by the Governor in a Proclamation made
be legal tender....
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It is proposed that the demonetization be effected under Article 2 of the said Order which provides as follows:
"2. The Governor may
at any time declare by Proclamation that all or any of the coins referred to in the Schedule to this Order shall cease to be legal tender
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The difficulty is that the said coin does not appear in the Schedule to the original Order, and there is doubt whether a Proclamation can be made under Article 2 of the Order. This doubt persists despite a similar exercise in 1949 when by Proclamation No. 1, the Governor proclaimed that those coins made legal tender by Proclamation No. 10 of 1937 should cease to be legal tender. The Governor made this Proclamation under Article 2 of the original Order. It is largely on the strength of this precedent that the Secretary for Monetary Affairs requests a similar Proclamation in relation to the fifty cent coin made legal tender in July 1951.
In my opinion, Proclamation No. 1 of 1949 was invalid as would be the Proclamation now being sought. The position is quite clear. Only the coins referred to in the Schedule to the original Order may be made the subject of a Proclamation whereby they cease to be legal tender. Article 1 of the Order provides:
"1. Each of the several coins specified in the Schedule
to this Order shall be legal tender in the Colony to the extent stated in that Schedule in respect of each coin until a Proclamation shall have been issued under Article 2 of this Order providing that such coin shall no longer be legal tender."
Article 2 has already been adverted to, and only deals with coins "referred to in the Schedule to this Order".
/The...
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