Wanted by Reserve Bank: 300 million stray coins

Time is up for these old favourites.

Travelling the world, in the pockets and wallets of tourists, stuffed between couch cushions, or hoarded in piggy banks - hundreds of millions of soon-to-be-obsolete New Zealand silver coins are still at large.

Just over a month after the Reserve Bank introduced the new coinage, it says it is making good progress in collecting the old coins and replacing them in circulation with the new smaller and lighter ones.

New 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces were released at the end of July.

Since 1967, the bank has issued just over a billion of the old 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins and since July, just over 200 million of them have been returned to the bank.

The old coins are sold to an overseas company which melts them down and sells reminted blank coins around the world.

With less than two months until they cease being legal tender, the bank estimates there are still 300 million old coins to be returned, with about 250 million sitting in piggy banks, jam jars, unused purses and on unswept floors around the country.

Based on research done on the introduction of the Euro, the bank only expects about 75 per cent of the coins stored at home to be returned.

Another 25 million coins simply vanish from circulation each year -- most likely offshore in the luggage of travellers.

The bank commissioned a survey from ACNielsen earlier this year to establish how many coins were used on a day-to-day basis, how many were likely to be stored, and how many would need to be minted to replace the old currency.

The survey examined more than 1000 households, and estimated 250 million silver coins, weighing 1584 tonnes, were stored in the country's homes -- four times as many as carried in the population's wallets, and 10 times as many as is held in the nation's banks.

The average household was estimated to be hoarding 185 coins, with an average value of slightly more than $26, adding up to $35 million nationwide.

However, not everyone has a fortune hidden under their couch.

The survey showed 20 per cent of the population had few, if any, coins stored, while at the other end of the scale, 20 per cent had an average of 642 coins.

The old coins will cease to be legal tender on November 1.

- NZPA