HC Deb 30 May 1861 vol 163 c242
MR. ALDERMAN SALOMONS

said, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, What steps have been taken, if any, towards making the Colonial Sovereign coined by the Branch of the Royal Mint at Sydney, New South Wales, a legal tender throughout Her Majesty's Dominions?

MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE

said, no steps had been taken for the purpose of making the sovereigns coined at the Sydney Mint a legal tender in the other colonies or in the United Kingdom. With respect to India and the colonies the regulation of the currency and the coinage was left in the hands of the Local Legislatures, and, with respect to the United Kingdom, though the admission of the Sydney sovereigns here would be a matter of great interest to the colony, yet it was an Imperial, and not a colonial question, and would require to be settled by an Act of Parliament, and Her Majesty's Government did not see their way to propose any legislation on that subject.