Piggy banks hold lost millions

By CHRIS DANIELS

Crack open the piggy bank - the Reserve Bank needs our five cent coins.

Supplies are dwindling, apparently because, unable to find anything to spend them on, we hoard them in jars and drawers around the house.

The problem may sound trivial but the Reserve Bank says it has issued 476 million five cent coins since decimal currency was introduced in 1967.

But they keep on vanishing, forcing the bank to bring in more.

And that's getting expensive. Each five cent coin now costs more than four cents to make.

Reserve Bank currency manager Brian Lang said the latest shortage would be eased when a shipload of 20 million coins arrived from Canada in three weeks.

Mr Lang said the Reserve Bank flew one batch of new coins from the Canadian factory to "tide over" retailers until the ship came in.

"It was definitely looking sick before they arrived."

Mr Lang said the bank issued millions of the coins every year.

They were given to retailers, who handed them out to customers. After that, they dropped out of circulation.

The bank looked at withdrawing them in 1997, but retailers wanted them to stay.

The coins do not pass an unofficial Reserve Bank test - hardly anyone stops to pick one up off the street.

Few items worth five cents are sold in shops, and many vending machines no longer accept the coins.

So what can you do with them?

Buy loose lollies from the corner dairy (they start at 5c), feed them into charity collection boxes, or stash handfuls in the car and feed them into those parking meters that still take them.