The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 42, October 21, 2007, Article 24

ON TRANSACTION ROUNDING AND COLLECTOR'S ITEMS IN SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa is one country that has recently eliminated its
lowest coin denomination and is already having to deal with
the issue.  As one example, here is an article published in
Cape Town about one couple's adventure in rounding:

"There it was, in black and white, on the Edgars account.
Fanie and Susan Bosman owed the chain store a princely R0.01.

"But the clothing group had not bargained for the twinkle in
the eyes of the Bosmans from Stellenberg in Cape Town: she is
70, and he is 75 years old. They set off to pay the account and
in the process had the entire store in an uproar.

"Susan said it all began when she went to pay an account for
R53.41 at an Edgars branch.

"'I asked the man at the cash register to round it off, meaning
to 40c. But he rounded it off to 45c. I flatly refused and said
no ways, I'm not paying 4c more than I should, so I paid R53.40.

"'At the end of the month I got an account from Edgars for the
outstanding amount of R0.01.'

"'Armed with the one cent, we set off'

"But Edgars had not reckoned with 'my mischievous husband'.

"He scratched around and found a 1c coin from 1961, the year
South Africa first went decimal.

"'Armed with this old cent we set off to Edgars. The girls
behind the counter weren't even born when the coin was issued
and they had no idea what to do with it. They eventually called
in the manager's help.

"'He took us off to his office, because people were starting
to gather round us. He looked at the vintage coin from this
angle and that and summarily declared it to be an official
collector's item.

"'My husband and I glanced at each other and Fanie said the
man could keep the collector's item. At first he didn't want
to, but later he did. And so we left there.'"

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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