Coin change leaves NZ Reserve Bank short-changed

[Figleaf]

One thing is sure, the previous series of New Zealand coins will not be worth anything over melt value this millennium. The return figure of 39% may seem low, but I believe the euro countries didn't do much better and probably did even worse. I wish I could sell these "old" coins short ...

Source: Stuff.co

Peter

Coin change leaves Reserve Bank short-changed
NZPA | Friday, 6 July 2007

A large proportion of the old coins used before New Zealand's currency makeover last year is still out there and not expected to return any time.
Only 39 per cent of the bigger, heavier coins in use until July last year has found its way back to Reserve Bank coffers.
The bank's head of currency, Alan Boaden, says that $1 billion worth of new coins had been issued and as of last week, $353 million of the old currency had been recovered.
People had three months to use the old coins before they ceased to be legal tender. The change did not affect $1 and $2 coins.
To date the bank has seen 26 per cent of the now-deleted 5c coins back, 39 per cent of the 10c, 49 per cent of the 20c and 60 per cent of the 50c coins, which Mr Boaden says is broadly comparable to what happened in Europe when they introduced the euro.
"To be honest, I was surprised that we only got 60 per cent of the 50c coins back because they're reasonably valuable coins."
Mr Boaden suspects that much of the missing money has either been lost or taken out of the country by tourists.
"We get two million tourists a year and if they each take half a dozen coins, that's about 12 million disappearing out of the country each year."

[BC Numismatics]

Peter,
  There is some demand for the old decimal coins from New Zealand,which is a reason why a lot of old coins have not been cashed in at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand here in Wellington.

It isn't only collectors in New Zealand who are seriously interested in collecting New Zealand coins.There are some collectors overseas who are also interested in New Zealand coins as well.

Aidan.

[Figleaf]

About NZD 650 million in coins remain at large. Assume equal amounts of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents pieces (85 cents per set), that is 650:0.85=about 765 million sets. Assume a world average family size of 4 persons (man-woman-2 children) and a world population of 6.5 billion. That is enough to provide about every second family in the world with a set of old New Zealand coins, if they would be interested.

In reality, there would be more than 765*4=about 3 billion pieces around, because there will be relatively many 5 cents and relatively few 50 cents remaining. Maybe the 50 cents will rise over melt in 500 years...

Peter

[translateltd]

The key dates in the series are the last circulating years in each case: 5c 2004, 10c, 20c & 50c 2005, as I've mentioned elsewhere.  These command a healthy premium at the moment, and it looks like good examples of the 1973 5c will start doing so soon, as they are proving hard to find now that people are finally starting to put year sets together.  The 1971 circulating coins are also costly in good order (as distinct from the coins issued in uncirculated sets, which are struck at different mints and have slightly different features, as discussed elsewhere on this forum).

When the news broke about the 2004 5c in particular (there was an item on national TV at the time), many members of the public got the story wrong and thought that *all* old 5c were worth a fortune, and people started offering common dates on the Internet at ridiculous prices.  A few people got burned, though the RNSNZ did what it could to get on TV, put out media releases, etc., to try to put the situation right - to little avail, I suspect.  This may be one reason for some of the hoarding that has been going on.