Lot 205
Reporting on the first two years of operation
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Exhibited:
- 516 Literature:
- Collectibles Medium:
- Ephemera, Cards & Documents Circa:
- Ephemera, General Notes:
- This report was commissioned just two years after the opening of the Melbourne Mint and is a reaffirmation of its purpose, which was, to economically produce gold coins that would be accepted around the world on equal standing with their English-struck counterparts. The report includes the original memorandum of 20th January 1872 which successfully argued the benefits of establishing a branch of the Royal Mint in Melbourne. It demonstrated the rate of exchange problems exporters faced when sending goods to England based on bills of exchange by including a chart of exports from Sydney during the period 1849 to 1869 that showed that in 1852, for example, exporters had to contend with an 8 - 12 % discount on the value of their goods entirely due to a bad balance of trade. The proposition was put that the costs of coining gold locally would be balanced out by the costs associated with exporting it in raw form and, that the establishment of a mint would be instrumental in maintaining the local price of gold and wool, and generally of all exports from this country (Australia) to England. However, in just two years of operations the Melbourne Mint was to experience some teething problems. The standard London Mint price for an ounce of Gold was set at £3 17s. 10 1/2d and, Colonel E. W. Ward of the Melbourne Mint pointed out once again that unless it could match this price in the fluctuating local market then its coining presses would continue to sit idle for long periods of time while potential depositors sold elsewhere or waited for the next spike. He further argued that to encourage more depositors the minimum cost of coining needed to be reduced to 7s. along with more competitive levies of three-halfpence an ounce for deposits of 1,000 ounces and over, dropping to threepence an ounce for deposits of less weight. Further, he suggested that all fine silver in gold (purchased), which would have a commercial value in England, to be allowed for the depositor at 5s. per ounce which previously must have been a right little earner for the Mint, which at the time was selling silver bars at a rate of 5s 6d per ounce. Without these changes he expected that the Mint was likely to continue to run at a loss which amounted to a hefty £10,000 in the year prior. A scheme was also proposed to formalise security and transport costs for gold owned by the general public after it was deposited at the Treasury branches at Ballarat, Sandhurst, Maryborough, Castlemaine and Creswick. Colonel Ward pointed out that although the banks were paying an annual fee of £1,200 to the Railway department to defray these costs virtually nothing was charged of the public. He suggested the public pay a fee of one penny an ounce, to be collected at the Mint, of which one-half might be paid to the credit of the Railway department (which was in line with the charges borne by the banks), and the other to the credit of the Treasury for the interest on the outlay in iron safes etc. Just 750 copies were printed of this insightful report and in our October Sale Smalls Auctions offers a near pristine copy.
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