Coinage (Measurement) Bill

David Nuttall Excerpts

Friday 1st April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster) on piloting the Bill so swiftly through its stages in the House. I should like to make a couple of points following on from the remarks made already.

My first comment concerns the value that the coin will bring to the Treasury. I understand that there are to be two coins—a gold coin with a face value of £1,000, and a silver coin with a face value of £500. I also understand that 60 of the gold coins and an estimated 14,000 of the silver coins are to be minted. The value of the coins will depend on the prevailing cost of precious metals, but if we were to base the cost on the best current estimate, a gold coin is likely to fetch about £40,000 and a silver coin about £500. Taking those together and doing a quick bit of maths, that makes £19.9 million—not bad for a morning’s work—which I am sure would be gratefully received by the Treasury. Indeed, I understand that 20,000 coins were sold in the Beijing Olympics, so I wonder whether there might be scope for minting more than is currently allowed for.

[Mark Lancaster]

I fear that the figure might even be slightly larger than my hon. Friend realises. The estimated retail value of the silver coin will actually be £1,250.

[Mr Nuttall]

In that case the amount from the silver coins would be more than doubled, and there are more of them as well.

Let me turn to the size. On Second Reading I mentioned my disappointment that the coins were to be minted in kilograms, and suggested that they be minted in a multiple of a troy ounce. It was said that the coins are for the international market. If the object of the enterprise is to raise as much money as possible for the Treasury, the coins might be worth even more—with more collectors for them, raising even more money for the Treasury—if they are minted as a multiple of a troy ounce, because of their rarity on the international market.

Mention has been made of the suggestion made in Committee that the coin should perhaps bear an image of my hon. Friend in an athletic pose. He has been very modest today, because he has not mentioned the fact that, as he told the Committee, on the weekend before it sat he did his combat fitness test for the Army, running 8 miles while carrying 25 kg on his back. That is no mean feat, and I am not sure that many of us in the Chamber this morning could do that.

[Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)]

I wonder whether the 25 kg that my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster) was carrying was made up of coins.

[Mr Nuttall]

That is a good point.

[Mark Lancaster]

I wish they had been.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Nuttall]

Indeed, it would have been easier if they had been, but the pack on my hon. Friend’s back was probably rather bulkier. I thank him for his work for the Army.

Finally, it is often said that too few private Member’s Bills—in fact, hardly any—make it through the House. I would draw hon. Members’ attention to the fact that this Bill—which will, I am sure, shortly complete its stages through this House—will be the fourth Bill to complete its passage on a Friday, in addition to the Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Bill, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority Bill and the Wreck Removal Convention Bill. That shows that passing a private Member’s Bill is possible, and as this Bill has shown, it is also possible to do it fairly swiftly. The Bill received its Second Reading on 4 February, went to Committee on 16 March and today, on 1 April, will pass safely to the other place for consideration, where I hope it will receive swift approval, so that the Royal Mint can crack on with producing the coins and bringing in much needed funds to our Treasury. I congratulate my hon. Friend on piloting the Bill to this stage and wish it well in its future consideration.